User interface guidelines for the control of interactive television systems via smart phone applications

International audienceThere are a growing number of smart phone applications allowing the user to control their television, set-top box or other entertainment devices. The success of these applications is limited. Based on findings from media studies in Austria and France focusing on how people currently use their TV and iTV systems and associated devices, this article describes recommendations for the design of a smart phone application enabling users to control Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) systems including all connected entertainment devices. Recommendations include the need to allow users to control devices that are related to the IPTV experience (not only the set-top box or television set) and the focus on scenarios of usage like supporting listening to music, enjoying a movie or controlling the connected home. Based on similarities and differences found in the two samples, future smart phone applications for controlling TV will only succeed if they provide meaningful functionalities that satisfy the (varying) user needs, support personalisation and personal usage and respect the limitations of mobile phones with respect to possible parallel activities performed

Examining the role of smart TVs and VR HMDs in synchronous at-a-distance media consumption

This article examines synchronous at-a-distance media consumption from two perspectives: How it can be facilitated using existing consumer displays (through TVs combined with smartphones), and imminently available consumer displays (through virtual reality (VR) HMDs combined with RGBD sensing). First, we discuss results from an initial evaluation of a synchronous shared at-a-distance smart TV system, CastAway. Through week-long in-home deployments with five couples, we gain formative insights into the adoption and usage of at-a-distance media consumption and how couples communicated during said consumption. We then examine how the imminent availability and potential adoption of consumer VR HMDs could affect preferences toward how synchronous at-a-distance media consumption is conducted, in a laboratory study of 12 pairs, by enhancing media immersion and supporting embodied telepresence for communication. Finally, we discuss the implications these studies have for the near-future of consumer synchronous at-a-distance media consumption. When combined, these studies begin to explore a design space regarding the varying ways in which at-a-distance media consumption can be supported and experienced (through music, TV content, augmenting existing TV content for immersion, and immersive VR content), what factors might influence usage and adoption and the implications for supporting communication and telepresence during media consumption

Understanding 3D mid-air hand gestures with interactive surfaces and displays: a systematic literature review

3D gesture based systems are becoming ubiquitous and there are many mid-air hand gestures that exist for interacting with digital surfaces and displays. There is no well defined gesture set for 3D mid-air hand gestures which makes it difficult to develop applications that have consistent gestures. To understand what gestures exist we conducted the first comprehensive systematic literature review on mid-air hand gestures following existing research methods. The results of the review identified 65 papers where the mid-air hand gestures supported tasks for selection, navigation, and manipulation. We also classified the gestures according to a gesture classification scheme and identified how these gestures have been empirically evaluated. The results of the review provide a richer understanding of what mid-air hand gestures have been designed, implemented, and evaluated in the literature which can help developers design better user experiences for digital interactive surfaces and displays

Understanding 3D mid-air hand gestures with interactive surfaces and displays: a systematic literature review

3D gesture based systems are becoming ubiquitous and there are many mid-air hand gestures that exist for interacting with digital surfaces and displays. There is no well defined gesture set for 3D mid-air hand gestures which makes it difficult to develop applications that have consistent gestures. To understand what gestures exist we conducted the first comprehensive systematic literature review on mid-air hand gestures following existing research methods. The results of the review identified 65 papers where the mid-air hand gestures supported tasks for selection, navigation, and manipulation. We also classified the gestures according to a gesture classification scheme and identified how these gestures have been empirically evaluated. The results of the review provide a richer understanding of what mid-air hand gestures have been designed, implemented, and evaluated in the literature which can help developers design better user experiences for digital interactive surfaces and displays

Brave New GES World:A Systematic Literature Review of Gestures and Referents in Gesture Elicitation Studies

How to determine highly effective and intuitive gesture sets for interactive systems tailored to end users’ preferences? A substantial body of knowledge is available on this topic, among which gesture elicitation studies stand out distinctively. In these studies, end users are invited to propose gestures for specific referents, which are the functions to control for an interactive system. The vast majority of gesture elicitation studies conclude with a consensus gesture set identified following a process of consensus or agreement analysis. However, the information about specific gesture sets determined for specific applications is scattered across a wide landscape of disconnected scientific publications, which poses challenges to researchers and practitioners to effectively harness this body of knowledge. To address this challenge, we conducted a systematic literature review and examined a corpus of N=267 studies encompassing a total of 187, 265 gestures elicited from 6, 659 participants for 4, 106 referents. To understand similarities in users’ gesture preferences within this extensive dataset, we analyzed a sample of 2, 304 gestures extracted from the studies identified in our literature review. Our approach consisted of (i) identifying the context of use represented by end users, devices, platforms, and gesture sensing technology, (ii) categorizing the referents, (iii) classifying the gestures elicited for those referents, and (iv) cataloging the gestures based on their representation and implementation modalities. Drawing from the findings of this review, we propose guidelines for conducting future end-user gesture elicitation studies

User-Experience with Haptic Feedback Technologies and Text Input in Interactive Multimedia Devices

Remote control devices are commonly used for interaction with multimedia equipment and applications (e.g., smart TVs, gaming, etc.). To improve conventional keypad-based technologies, haptic feedback and user input capabilities are being developed for enhancing the UX and providing advanced functionalities in remote control devices. Although the sensation provided by haptic feedback is similar to mechanical push buttons, the former offers much greater flexibility, due to the possibility of dynamically choosing different mechanical effects and associating different functions to each of them. However, selecting the best haptic feedback effects among the wide variety that is currently enabled by recent technologies, remains a challenge for design engineers aiming to optimise the UX. Rich interaction further requires text input capability, which greatly influences the UX. This work is a contribution towards UX evaluation of remote control devices with haptic feedback and text input. A user evaluation study of a wide variety of haptic feedback effects and text input methods is presented, considering different technologies and different number of actuators on a device. The user preferences, given by subjective evaluation scores, demonstrate that haptic feedback has undoubtedly a positive impact on the UX. Moreover, it is also shown that different levels of UX are obtained, according to the technological characteristics of the haptic actuators and how many of them are used on the device.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Acoustic motion tracking and its application

Video games, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Smart appliances (e.g., smart TVs) all call for a new way for users to interact and control them. This thesis explores high precision acoustic motion tracking system which aims to replace traditional control devices such as mouse and let the user play games, interact with VR/AR headsets, and control smart appliances. We develop a lightweight system which can achieve mm-level tracking accuracy using inaudible sounds. At the heart of our system lies a distributed Frequency Modulated Continuous Waveform (FMCW) which is able to accurately estimate the absolute distance between a receiver and a transmitter that are separate and unsynchronized. We further develop an optimization framework to combine FMCW estimation with Doppler shifts and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) measurements to enhance the accuracy, and efficient algorithm to solve the optimization problem. We develop several interesting applications on top of our motion tracking technology, including audio ruler, drawing in the air, and playing motion-controlled gamesComputer Science

TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2009

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month