Ishii, Hiroshi

Joseph Konstan presenting Hiroshi Ishii with the plaque commemorating his election to the SIGCHI Academy at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Montreal, Canada on April 23, 2006.

Hiroshi Ishii (1956 – ) is the creator of the Tangible User Interface, which allows a user to interact with digital information in non-standard ways. Ishii first described the concept in his paper “Tangible Bits.” Moving beyond the ubiquitous keyboard and mouse, TUIs seek to allow the manipulation of digital information through physical modules, making the ‘bits’ more open to direct manipulation and opening a variety of information types to users.

Ishii’s continued research in the area has led to the Radical Atoms, an as yet theoretical successor generation of Tangible Bits that are themselves changeable and, according to the Tangible Media Group, would become “as reconfigurable as pixels on a screen.” He received the ACM CHI Lifetime Research Award in 2019.

 “Hiroshi’s energetic smile and intense presentations promoted tangible computing ideas at MIT and beyond.  His vibrant demos and videos opened the door to the physicality of user interfaces.  I like his enthusiasm and his fresh ideas, and we share an interest in taking photos of our colleagues.” – Ben Shneiderman

 

Hiroshi Ishii at Stanford University, Palo Atlo, CA in May 2008.

Hiroshi Ishii and Roz Picard at the MIT Media Lab in 1998.

Liam Bannon (l), Hiroshi Ishii, and Marilyn Mantei at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Pittsburgh, PA in April 1999.

The SIGCHI Academy class of 2006 (from left): George Robertson, Hiroshi Ishii, Jakob Nielsen, Michel Beaudoin-Lafond, Scott Hudson, Peter Pirolli at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Montreal Canada on April 24, 2006.

Hiroshi Ishii with Patrick Baudisch at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris, France in April 2013.

Hiroshi Ishii at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in April 2014.

---

Education:

• Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Hokkaido University (1992)
• M.E. in Computer Engineering, Hokkaido University (1980)
• B.E. in Electrical Engineering, Hokkaido University (1978)

Affiliations:

• Jerome B. Weisner Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab (1995 – Present)
• Visiting Professor, University of Toronto (1993 – 1994)
• Lead Scientist, CSCW Research Group, NTT Human Interface Laboratories (1988 – 1994)

Links:

• Homepage
• Wikipedia
• Election to ACM CHI Academy 2006