DippaOut:comparing the player experience of different interaction methods in mobile games

Abstract. Mobile phones are one of the most common platforms for gaming. They also provide a wide selection of possible interaction modes, such as touch, tilt, and eye-tracking. Different kinds of games can be created with these interaction methods, but game designers constantly develop new ways to play with various accessories and game designs. Since people carry mobile phones everywhere, mobile phones have enabled playing games everywhere; in buses, during school breaks, and in restrooms. The most popular mobile phone platforms are currently Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, which provide touching the screen via finger or stylus as a primary interaction method. The game design challenge provides a good user experience since there are no hardware buttons available as in gaming console controllers. The problem that mobile phones lack hardware buttons has forced game developers to think differently and develop games with only a few interactions available. This thesis focuses on taking a different approach to that problem. What if the user can control the game by rotating the mobile phone or using eye movement. The goal was to create a simple game with five different interaction methods: touching the screen, rotating the mobile phone, closing left and right eyes, using head and eye-tracking. Data was automatically collected with those five interaction methods during gameplay; additional material was collected after each level about gameplay and after test-session with questionnaires about testers’ demographics and opinions. The questionnaires were later analyzed to see how those interaction methods differ from each other; the users’ views of those methods and the data collected during gameplay are in line with testers’ answers. The gameplay data was analyzed and the most suitable interaction for playing DippaOut was rotating the phone, and the worst was eye tracking. The order of the remaining three interactions was: touch, head tracking, and eye closing. From the end level questionnaire, players’ opinions revealed that they did not like playing DippaOut with eye-tracking, and rotating the mobile phone was the most suitable way to play on players’ opinions. In players’ view, the touch was the second-best interaction method, and the eye closing, which was a new way to play, was ranked in results to be the third-best interaction method. Head Tracking, which some players were familiar with, was in the fourth position. After the testing session, players filled out a postquestionnaire where they could express their opinions and results were quite similar than on other measurements and end level questionnaire.Tiivistelmä. Matkapuhelimet ovat yksi yleisimmistä pelialustoista. Ne tarjoavat myös laajan valikoiman mahdollisia vuorovaikutustiloja, kuten kosketus, kallistus ja katseen seuranta. Näillä vuorovaikutustavoilla voidaan luoda erilaisia pelejä, mutta pelisuunnittelijat kehittävät jatkuvasti uusia tapoja pelata erilaisilla lisävarusteilla ja pelien suunnittelulla. Ihmiset kantavat matkapuhelimia kaikkialla ja matkapuhelimet ovat mahdollistaneet pelien pelaamisen näin myös kaikkialla; busseissa, koulumatkojen aikana ja vessoissa. Suosituimmat matkapuhelinalustat ovat tällä hetkellä Applen iOS ja Googlen Android, jotka tarjoavat ensisijaisena vuorovaikutustapana kosketuksen näyttöön sormella tai stylus kynällä. Pelien suunnittelussa on haasteena hyvän käyttökokemuksen tarjoaminen, koska fyysisiä näppäimiä ei ole saatavana kuten pelikonsolien ohjaimissa. Fyysisten näppäimien puuttuminen on ongelma verrattaessa perinteisiin peleihin, mikä on pakottanut pelikehittäjät ajattelemaan erilailla ja kehittämään pelejä eri vuorovaikutuksilla. Tässä opinnäytetyössä keskitytään mobiilipelien vuorovaikutusongelmaan. Entä jos käyttäjä voi hallita peliä kääntämällä matkapuhelinta tai käyttämällä silmän liikkeitä? Tavoitteena oli luoda yksinkertainen peli viidellä eri vuorovaikutustavalla: näyttöä koskettamalla, matkapuhelinta kääntelemällä, sulkemalla vasenta tai oikeaan silmää, päätä kääntämällä ja katseen seurannalla. Tiedot kerättiin automaattisesti näiden viiden eri vuorovaikutustavan avulla pelin aikana. Pelin jälkeen kerättiin lisämateriaalia tason jälkeisellä kyselylomakkeella ja testisession jälkeisellä kyselomakkeella pelaajien mielipiteistä ja väestötiedoista. Kyselylomakkeita analysoitiin myöhemmin sen selvittämiseksi, miten nämä vuorovaikutustavat eroavat toisistaan. Sekä miten pelaajien näkemykset näistä menetelmistä ja pelin aikana kerätyt tiedot eroavat toisistaan. Pelitiedot analysoitiin ja pelaajakokemukseltaan sopivin vuorovaikutus DippaOut pelin pelaamiseen oli puhelimen kallistaminen ja huonoin oli katseen seuranta. Kolmen muun vuorovaikutuksen järjestys oli: kosketus, pään kääntäminen ja silmien sulkeminen. Pelaajien mielipiteet paljastivat tason jälkeisestä kyselylomakkeesta, että he eivät pitäneet DippaOutin pelaamisesta katseen seurannalla ja matkapuhelimen kallistaminen oli sopivin tapa pelata. Kosketus oli toiseksi paras vuorovaikutusmenetelmä, ja silmien sulkeminen, joka oli uusi tapa pelata, luokiteltiin tuloksissa kolmanneksi parhaaksi vuorovaikutustavaksi. Joillekin pelaajille tuttu pään kääntäminen oli neljänneksi paras vuorovaikutusmenetelmä

The study of road conditions that affect tilt-based text input for mobile devices

With the rapid advances in technology of mobile devices, their application areas expand continuously as well. Given the growth of the market share for mobile devices, one of the main issues that arise is the need for new and convenient techniques for data input and output suitable for various settings. Tilt-based text input is one of the alternatives that attract attention of current researchers. This study investigates the potential of using tilt-based interaction to enter text while sitting as a passenger in a moving vehicle. In addition, the investigation focused on the characteristics of the road as well as driving conditions that affect tilt-based text input. The study manipulated the following factors: keyboard size 10×4 and road unevenness (small, moderate, and large). 14 participants, aged 25 to 50, took part in the user study. The best performance and the shortest task completion time equal to 24.5 seconds was observed when the vehicle was moving at a constant speed on a straight road with small unevenness. The task completion time increased by 15% in moderate unevenness road and by almost 20 % in large unevenness road. Error rate and movement efficiency were investigated additionally in order to find out the cause of such times. Article in English. Kelio netolygumų įtakos akselerometru grįstai mobiliojo įrenginio teksto įvesčiai tyrimas Santrauka Greitai besivystant mobiliųjų įrenginių technologijoms vienas iš perspektyvių teksto įvesties būdų yra teksto įvestis naudojant mobiliojo įrenginio akselerometrą. Buvo atliktas kelio kokybės įtakos įvesčiai taikant ekselerometrą tyrimas. Kelio kokybė buvo nustatoma naudojant to paties akselerometro duomenis. Tyrimai parodė, kad važiuojant geros kokybės keliu užduotis atliekama per 24,5 sekundės. Blogėjant kelio kokybei užduoties atlikimo laikas ilgėja. Kartu blogėja ir vidutinės klaidos bei vidutinio judesio efektyvumo rezultatai. Reikšminiai žodžiai: mobilioji teksto įvestis, pokrypio įvestis, klaviatūros dydis, kelio nelygumai

Hands-Free User Interaction for Accessible Computing

Three experiments were conducted to compare hands-free and hands-on input methods for accessible computing. The first experiment compared hands-free and hands-on text-entry on a smart-phone. EVA Facial Mouse, an Android application, was used for facial tracking for the hands-free phase of the experiment. The second experiment used the Fitts law two-dimensional task in ISO 9241-9 to evaluate hands-free and hands-on point-select tasks on a laptop computer. We used a facial-tracking software called Camera Mouse in combination with dwell-time selection. The third user study compared Camera Mouse with the keyboard and touchpad of a laptop to play a simple yet well known game: Snake. A case study was also conducted with a physically challenged participant for the hands-free phase of the gaming experiment. Our key finding from the three experiments and the case study is that the hands-free methods are not yet as well-performing as the hands-on methods

Deep Neural Network and Data Augmentation Methodology for off-axis iris segmentation in wearable headsets

A data augmentation methodology is presented and applied to generate a large dataset of off-axis iris regions and train a low-complexity deep neural network. Although of low complexity the resulting network achieves a high level of accuracy in iris region segmentation for challenging off-axis eye-patches. Interestingly, this network is also shown to achieve high levels of performance for regular, frontal, segmentation of iris regions, comparing favorably with state-of-the-art techniques of significantly higher complexity. Due to its lower complexity, this network is well suited for deployment in embedded applications such as augmented and mixed reality headsets

Mobile phone interaction techniques for rural economy development - a review

Rural communities, especially in developing countries, are often neglected in terms of facilities and services that aid their social and economic development. This is evident even in software development processes, in that these groups of users or potential users’ are often not taken into consideration. The resultant effect is that they may not use it or use it sparingly. The objective of this study is to identify the various researches on interaction techniques and user interface design as a first step to the design of suitable mobile interactions and user interfaces for rural users. This research project is also aimed at socio-economic development and adding value to mobile phone users in Dwesa, a rural community in South Africa. This paper presents a literature survey of interaction techniques and user-interfaces. An analysis of the interaction techniques with respect to their suitability, availability of technologies, user capabilities for implementation in a rural context is discussed. Descriptive statistics of users’ current phones interaction facilities in the rural community which briefly illustrates users’ experiences and capabilities in different interaction modes is also presented.KEY WORDS: Interaction Techniques, Mobile phone, User Interface, ICT, Rural Development

Dwell-free input methods for people with motor impairments

Millions of individuals affected by disorders or injuries that cause severe motor impairments have difficulty performing compound manipulations using traditional input devices. This thesis first explores how effective various assistive technologies are for people with motor impairments. The following questions are studied: (1) What activities are performed? (2) What tools are used to support these activities? (3) What are the advantages and limitations of these tools? (4) How do users learn about and choose assistive technologies? (5) Why do users adopt or abandon certain tools? A qualitative study of fifteen people with motor impairments indicates that users have strong needs for efficient text entry and communication tools that are not met by existing technologies. To address these needs, this thesis proposes three dwell-free input methods, designed to improve the efficacy of target selection and text entry based on eye-tracking and head-tracking systems. They yield: (1) the Target Reverse Crossing selection mechanism, (2) the EyeSwipe eye-typing interface, and (3) the HGaze Typing interface. With Target Reverse Crossing, a user moves the cursor into a target and reverses over a goal to select it. This mechanism is significantly more efficient than dwell-time selection. Target Reverse Crossing is then adapted in EyeSwipe to delineate the start and end of a word that is eye-typed with a gaze path connecting the intermediate characters (as with traditional gesture typing). When compared with a dwell-based virtual keyboard, EyeSwipe affords higher text entry rates and a more comfortable interaction. Finally, HGaze Typing adds head gestures to gaze-path-based text entry to enable simple and explicit command activations. Results from a user study demonstrate that HGaze Typing has better performance and user satisfaction than a dwell-time method