2026
Malaika Pandit
Whiskers: A Descriptive Study of Children's Engagement with an Interactive Textured Book Masters Thesis
Dalhousie Univerity, 2026.
Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: book, child-computer interaction, sound & music computing, tangible interfaces, touch
@mastersthesis{Pandit2026,
title = {Whiskers: A Descriptive Study of Children's Engagement with an Interactive Textured Book},
author = {Malaika Pandit},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-08-31},
urldate = {2026-08-31},
school = {Dalhousie Univerity},
abstract = {Electronically augmented children’s books have existed for over two decades, and
commonly respond with a discrete event: a touch selects a pre-authored sound, which
plays to its end regardless of what the hand does next. This thesis asks what such a
book would be like if sound instead followed the hand continuously. An interactive
textured book was built with a fur-covered page over a pressure-sensitive sensor and
two audio engines sharing one contact stream: one synthesizing sound continuously
from the position and movement of an ongoing touch, the other triggering a discrete
recorded sound at touch-down. Eight children aged four to six met both versions in
counterbalanced order, with no task imposed. Every child spent a greater share of
the session in contact under continuous feedback; smiling was coded more often under
discrete feedback for six of eight. Neither is concluded better. What sustained a child
and what delighted one proved to be different measures.},
keywords = {book, child-computer interaction, sound & music computing, tangible interfaces, touch},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {mastersthesis}
}
Electronically augmented children’s books have existed for over two decades, and
commonly respond with a discrete event: a touch selects a pre-authored sound, which
plays to its end regardless of what the hand does next. This thesis asks what such a
book would be like if sound instead followed the hand continuously. An interactive
textured book was built with a fur-covered page over a pressure-sensitive sensor and
two audio engines sharing one contact stream: one synthesizing sound continuously
from the position and movement of an ongoing touch, the other triggering a discrete
recorded sound at touch-down. Eight children aged four to six met both versions in
counterbalanced order, with no task imposed. Every child spent a greater share of
the session in contact under continuous feedback; smiling was coded more often under
discrete feedback for six of eight. Neither is concluded better. What sustained a child
and what delighted one proved to be different measures.
commonly respond with a discrete event: a touch selects a pre-authored sound, which
plays to its end regardless of what the hand does next. This thesis asks what such a
book would be like if sound instead followed the hand continuously. An interactive
textured book was built with a fur-covered page over a pressure-sensitive sensor and
two audio engines sharing one contact stream: one synthesizing sound continuously
from the position and movement of an ongoing touch, the other triggering a discrete
recorded sound at touch-down. Eight children aged four to six met both versions in
counterbalanced order, with no task imposed. Every child spent a greater share of
the session in contact under continuous feedback; smiling was coded more often under
discrete feedback for six of eight. Neither is concluded better. What sustained a child
and what delighted one proved to be different measures.