Exploring information spaces by using tangible magic lenses in a tabletop environment

To solve the challenge of exploring large information spaces on interactive surfaces such as tabletops, we developed an optically tracked, lightweight, passive display (magic lens) that provides elegant three-dimensional exploration of rich datasets. This can either be volumetric, layered, zoomable, or temporal information spaces, which are mapped onto the physical volume above a tabletop. By moving the magic lens through the volume, corresponding data is displayed, thus serving as a window into virtuality. Hereby, various interaction techniques are introduced, which especially utilize the lens' height above a tabletop in a novel way, e.g. for zooming or displaying information layers.