ACM Tangible and Embedded Interaction (TEI)

ACM Tangible and Embedded Interaction (TEI)
Name	ACM Tangible and Embedded Interaction (TEI)
Discipline	Human–computer interaction
Abbreviation	TEI
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Frequency	Annual
First	2007

ACM Tangible and Embedded Interaction (TEI) ACM Tangible and Embedded Interaction (TEI) is an annual conference and scholarly venue focused on tangible user interfaces, embedded systems, and physical computing that links digital interaction with material artifacts. It convenes researchers, designers, artists, and engineers from institutions and organizations across computing and design to present peer-reviewed work, prototypes, and performances, fostering cross-pollination among peers from universities, companies, and laboratories.

Overview

TEI serves as a forum where computer scientists, interaction designers, electrical engineers, roboticists, cognitive scientists, and artists converge to explore interfaces that integrate physical form and computational behavior. Leading contributors from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Cambridge, and ETH Zurich have presented alongside teams from Microsoft Research, Google Research, IBM Research, Intel Labs, and Mozilla Foundation to advance concepts spanning sensor networks, wearable devices, smart materials, and embodied interaction. The venue routinely attracts keynote speakers affiliated with MIT Media Lab, Royal College of Art, Aalto University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of California, Berkeley.

History and Development

TEI emerged from earlier threads in tangible computing that trace to projects and groups at Xerox PARC, Bell Labs, Apple Inc., and the Sony Computer Science Laboratories during the late 20th century, formalizing as an ACM-sponsored symposium in the 2000s with roots in tangible user interface work by researchers linked to MIT Media Lab and Nokia Research Center. Early steering and program committees included scholars affiliated with University of Toronto, University of Washington, University of Copenhagen, and University of Sussex, reflecting interdisciplinary origins rooted in both European and North American research traditions. Over time TEI expanded its scope to include embedded interaction research related to makerspaces and fabrication studios such as Fab Lab, MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, and initiatives from Fine Arts Institutions including Royal College of Art collaborations.

Conferences and Proceedings

TEI conferences issue peer-reviewed proceedings published in ACM Digital Library alongside proceedings from venues like CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, UbiComp, DIS, ISWC, and IEEE VR. Annual programs typically include full papers, short papers, demo papers, workshop sessions, doctoral consortiums, and doctoral abstracts, attracting submissions from labs at Princeton University, Harvard University, Columbia University, Pratt Institute, and Royal Institute of Technology. Notable program chairs and committee members have been affiliated with University of Maryland, Purdue University, Delft University of Technology, KU Leuven, and Eindhoven University of Technology. Proceedings document innovations that later appear in journals and books from Springer, Elsevier, and Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics.

Research Topics and Impact

Research presented at TEI spans tangible user interfaces, embodied cognition experiments, sensor fusion, embedded microcontrollers, actuated materials, interactive furniture, and hybrid physical-digital artifacts. Contributors draw from experimental traditions represented by labs at Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer Society, SRI International, and HRL Laboratories to explore haptics, tangible visualization, and spatial interaction. Work at TEI has influenced product teams at Apple Inc., Google, Samsung Electronics, and Sony, and has informed standards and open-source ecosystems such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi Foundation, Open Source Hardware Association, and Processing (programming language). TEI outputs intersect with domains represented by ACM SIGCHI, IEEE Computer Society, Interaction Design Association, and Design Research Society.

Notable Projects and Technologies

Prominent projects showcased at TEI include tangible blocks and tabletop systems inspired by early tangible computing prototypes from MIT Media Lab groups, wearable sensing and e-textile systems akin to work from University of Tokyo and Royal College of Art, and embedded sensing platforms comparable to offerings from Adafruit Industries and SparkFun Electronics. Other influential demonstrations have involved robotic artifacts developed in collaboration with teams from University of Pennsylvania, ETH Zurich, and Dartmouth College; shape-changing interfaces resonant with research from Carnegie Mellon University and Keio University; and smart home prototypes echoing experiments at Microsoft Research and Google Research. Several TEI projects have seeded startups and products connected to incubators such as Y Combinator, Techstars, and Wayra.

Community, Organization, and Sponsorship

The TEI community includes academics, industry researchers, independent designers, and artists organized through program and steering committees drawn from institutions like University of California, San Diego, University of Minnesota, University College London, University of Sydney, and Monash University. Sponsorship and partnerships frequently involve Association for Computing Machinery, corporate research labs at Intel Corporation, Microsoft, and Google, and cultural partners such as museums and galleries including Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and Victoria and Albert Museum that host exhibitions and public engagement events tied to TEI. The conference cultivates collaboration via workshops supported by organizations such as SIGCHI, Arduino, and Eclipse Foundation and by grants from national funders like National Science Foundation, European Research Council, and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Category:Human–computer interaction conferences