Cross-display attention switching in mobile interaction with large displays

Mobile devices equipped with features (e.g., camera, network connectivity and media player) are increasingly being used for different tasks such as web browsing, document reading and photography. While the portability of mobile devices makes them desirable for pervasive access to information, their small screen real-estate often imposes restrictions on the amount of information that can be displayed and manipulated on them. On the other hand, large displays have become commonplace in many outdoor as well as indoor environments. While they provide an efficient way of presenting and disseminating information, they provide little support for digital interactivity or physical accessibility. Researchers argue that mobile phones provide an efficient and portable way of interacting with large displays, and the latter can overcome the limitations of the small screens of mobile devices by providing a larger presentation and interaction space. However, distributing user interface (UI) elements across a mobile device and a large display can cause switching of visual attention and that may affect task performance. This thesis specifically explores how the switching of visual attention across a handheld mobile device and a vertical large display can affect a single user's task performance during mobile interaction with large displays. It introduces a taxonomy based on the factors associated with the visual arrangement of Multi Display User Interfaces (MDUIs) that can influence visual attention switching during interaction with MDUIs. It presents an empirical analysis of the effects of different distributions of input and output across mobile and large displays on the user's task performance, subjective workload and preference in the multiple-widget selection task, and in visual search tasks with maps, texts and photos. Experimental results show that the selection of multiple widgets replicated on the mobile device as well as on the large display, versus those shown only on the large display, is faster despite the cost of initial attention switching in the former. On the other hand, a hybrid UI configuration where the visual output is distributed across the mobile and large displays is the worst, or equivalent to the worst, configuration in all the visual search tasks. A mobile device-controlled large display configuration performs best in the map search task and equal to best (i.e., tied with a mobile-only configuration) in text- and photo-search tasks

Personalized Interaction with High-Resolution Wall Displays

Fallende Hardwarepreise sowie eine zunehmende Offenheit gegenüber neuartigen Interaktionsmodalitäten haben in den vergangen Jahren den Einsatz von wandgroßen interaktiven Displays möglich gemacht, und in der Folge ist ihre Anwendung, unter anderem in den Bereichen Visualisierung, Bildung, und der Unterstützung von Meetings, erfolgreich demonstriert worden. Aufgrund ihrer Größe sind Wanddisplays für die Interaktion mit mehreren Benutzern prädestiniert. Gleichzeitig kann angenommen werden, dass Zugang zu persönlichen Daten und Einstellungen — mithin personalisierte Interaktion — weiterhin essentieller Bestandteil der meisten Anwendungsfälle sein wird. Aktuelle Benutzerschnittstellen im Desktop- und Mobilbereich steuern Zugriffe über ein initiales Login. Die Annahme, dass es nur einen Benutzer pro Bildschirm gibt, zieht sich durch das gesamte System, und ermöglicht unter anderem den Zugriff auf persönliche Daten und Kommunikation sowie persönliche Einstellungen. Gibt es hingegen mehrere Benutzer an einem großen Bildschirm, müssen hierfür Alternativen gefunden werden. Die daraus folgende Forschungsfrage dieser Dissertation lautet: Wie können wir im Kontext von Mehrbenutzerinteraktion mit wandgroßen Displays personalisierte Schnittstellen zur Verfügung stellen? Die Dissertation befasst sich sowohl mit personalisierter Interaktion in der Nähe (mit Touch als Eingabemodalität) als auch in etwas weiterer Entfernung (unter Nutzung zusätzlicher mobiler Geräte). Grundlage für personalisierte Mehrbenutzerinteraktion sind technische Lösungen für die Zuordnung von Benutzern zu einzelnen Interaktionen. Hierzu werden zwei Alternativen untersucht: In der ersten werden Nutzer via Kamera verfolgt, und in der zweiten werden Mobilgeräte anhand von Ultraschallsignalen geortet. Darauf aufbauend werden Interaktionstechniken vorgestellt, die personalisierte Interaktion unterstützen. Diese nutzen zusätzliche Mobilgeräte, die den Zugriff auf persönliche Daten sowie Interaktion in einigem Abstand von der Displaywand ermöglichen. Einen weiteren Teil der Arbeit bildet die Untersuchung der praktischen Auswirkungen der Ausgabe- und Interaktionsmodalitäten für personalisierte Interaktion. Hierzu wird eine qualitative Studie vorgestellt, die Nutzerverhalten anhand des kooperativen Mehrbenutzerspiels Miners analysiert. Der abschließende Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit dem Analyseprozess selber: Es wird das Analysetoolkit für Wandinteraktionen GIAnT vorgestellt, das Nutzerbewegungen, Interaktionen, und Blickrichtungen visualisiert und dadurch die Untersuchung der Interaktionen stark vereinfacht.An increasing openness for more diverse interaction modalities as well as falling hardware prices have made very large interactive vertical displays more feasible, and consequently, applications in settings such as visualization, education, and meeting support have been demonstrated successfully. Their size makes wall displays inherently usable for multi-user interaction. At the same time, we can assume that access to personal data and settings, and thus personalized interaction, will still be essential in most use-cases. In most current desktop and mobile user interfaces, access is regulated via an initial login and the complete user interface is then personalized to this user: Access to personal data, configurations and communications all assume a single user per screen. In the case of multiple people using one screen, this is not a feasible solution and we must find alternatives. Therefore, this thesis addresses the research question: How can we provide personalized interfaces in the context of multi-user interaction with wall displays? The scope spans personalized interaction both close to the wall (using touch as input modality) and further away (using mobile devices). Technical solutions that identify users at each interaction can replace logins and enable personalized interaction for multiple users at once. This thesis explores two alternative means of user identification: Tracking using RGB+depth-based cameras and leveraging ultrasound positioning of the users' mobile devices. Building on this, techniques that support personalized interaction using personal mobile devices are proposed. In the first contribution on interaction, HyDAP, we examine pointing from the perspective of moving users, and in the second, SleeD, we propose using an arm-worn device to facilitate access to private data and personalized interface elements. Additionally, the work contributes insights on practical implications of personalized interaction at wall displays: We present a qualitative study that analyses interaction using a multi-user cooperative game as application case, finding awareness and occlusion issues. The final contribution is a corresponding analysis toolkit that visualizes users' movements, touch interactions and gaze points when interacting with wall displays and thus allows fine-grained investigation of the interactions

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) is a natural development from virtual reality (VR), which was developed several decades earlier. AR complements VR in many ways. Due to the advantages of the user being able to see both the real and virtual objects simultaneously, AR is far more intuitive, but it's not completely detached from human factors and other restrictions. AR doesn't consume as much time and effort in the applications because it's not required to construct the entire virtual scene and the environment. In this book, several new and emerging application areas of AR are presented and divided into three sections. The first section contains applications in outdoor and mobile AR, such as construction, restoration, security and surveillance. The second section deals with AR in medical, biological, and human bodies. The third and final section contains a number of new and useful applications in daily living and learning

Barehand Mode Switching in Touch and Mid-Air Interfaces

Raskin defines a mode as a distinct setting within an interface where the same user input will produce results different to those it would produce in other settings. Most interfaces have multiple modes in which input is mapped to different actions, and, mode-switching is simply the transition from one mode to another. In touch interfaces, the current mode can change how a single touch is interpreted: for example, it could draw a line, pan the canvas, select a shape, or enter a command. In Virtual Reality (VR), a hand gesture-based 3D modelling application may have different modes for object creation, selection, and transformation. Depending on the mode, the movement of the hand is interpreted differently. However, one of the crucial factors determining the effectiveness of an interface is user productivity. Mode-switching time of different input techniques, either in a touch interface or in a mid-air interface, affects user productivity. Moreover, when touch and mid-air interfaces like VR are combined, making informed decisions pertaining to the mode assignment gets even more complicated. This thesis provides an empirical investigation to characterize the mode switching phenomenon in barehand touch-based and mid-air interfaces. It explores the potential of using these input spaces together for a productivity application in VR. And, it concludes with a step towards defining and evaluating the multi-faceted mode concept, its characteristics and its utility, when designing user interfaces more generally

Technology 2003: The Fourth National Technology Transfer Conference and Exposition, volume 2

Proceedings from symposia of the Technology 2003 Conference and Exposition, Dec. 7-9, 1993, Anaheim, CA, are presented. Volume 2 features papers on artificial intelligence, CAD&E, computer hardware, computer software, information management, photonics, robotics, test and measurement, video and imaging, and virtual reality/simulation

The Functional Diversity of Mammalian Touch Receptors

Humans in the modern world can survive without the Aristotelian senses of vision, hearing, smell or taste, but no one is completely without the ability to sense touch. This sense is essential for everything from basic tasks like tool manipulation to the complex interactions that underlie social bonding, sexual reproduction and pleasure. Touch receptors are embedded in the skin, at the interface of our bodies and the world. A remarkable array of varied receptor types tile our skin to signal different features of the objects we touch and alert us to their shape and texture. An early investigator of the neurological basis of touch, Maximillian von Frey, proposed in 1895 that the morphological diversity of neural endings in the skin could represent functional specificity. It is indeed the evolution of diverse receptor structures that has endowed the sensory organ of our skin with remarkable somatosensory functions. Here I explore the evolution of mechanosensing, and discuss how diversity in form and organization of touch receptors, from the cellular to organismal level, can shape the function of touch reception

Humanoid Robots

For many years, the human being has been trying, in all ways, to recreate the complex mechanisms that form the human body. Such task is extremely complicated and the results are not totally satisfactory. However, with increasing technological advances based on theoretical and experimental researches, man gets, in a way, to copy or to imitate some systems of the human body. These researches not only intended to create humanoid robots, great part of them constituting autonomous systems, but also, in some way, to offer a higher knowledge of the systems that form the human body, objectifying possible applications in the technology of rehabilitation of human beings, gathering in a whole studies related not only to Robotics, but also to Biomechanics, Biomimmetics, Cybernetics, among other areas. This book presents a series of researches inspired by this ideal, carried through by various researchers worldwide, looking for to analyze and to discuss diverse subjects related to humanoid robots. The presented contributions explore aspects about robotic hands, learning, language, vision and locomotion

Fourth Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 90)

The papers from the symposium are presented. Emphasis is placed on human factors engineering and space environment interactions. The technical areas covered in the human factors section include: satellite monitoring and control, man-computer interfaces, expert systems, AI/robotics interfaces, crew system dynamics, and display devices. The space environment interactions section presents the following topics: space plasma interaction, spacecraft contamination, space debris, and atomic oxygen interaction with materials. Some of the above topics are discussed in relation to the space station and space shuttle