194 research outputs found
User acceptance of a touchless sterile system to control virtual orthodontic study models
Introduction In this article, we present an evaluation of user acceptance of our innovative hand-gesture-based touchless sterile system for interaction with and control of a set of 3-dimensional digitized orthodontic study models using the Kinect motion-capture sensor (Microsoft, Redmond, Wash). Methods The system was tested on a cohort of 201 participants. Using our validated questionnaire, the participants evaluated 7 hand-gesture-based commands that allowed the user to adjust the model in size, position, and aspect and to switch the image on the screen to view the maxillary arch, the mandibular arch, or models in occlusion. Participants' responses were assessed using Rasch analysis so that their perceptions of the usefulness of the hand gestures for the commands could be directly referenced against their acceptance of the gestures. Their perceptions of the potential value of this system for cross-infection control were also evaluated. Results Most participants endorsed these commands as accurate. Our designated hand gestures for these commands were generally accepted. We also found a positive and significant correlation between our participants' level of awareness of cross infection and their endorsement to use this system in clinical practice. Conclusions This study supports the adoption of this promising development for a sterile touch-free patient record-management system
Understanding Visual Feedback in Large-Display Touchless Interactions: An Exploratory Study
Touchless interactions synthesize input and output from physically disconnected motor and display spaces without any haptic feedback. In the absence of any haptic feedback, touchless interactions primarily rely on visual cues, but properties of visual feedback remain unexplored. This paper systematically investigates how large-display touchless interactions are affected by (1) types of visual feedback—discrete, partial, and continuous; (2) alternative forms of touchless cursors; (3) approaches to visualize target-selection; and (4) persistent visual cues to support out-of-range and drag-and-drop gestures. Results suggest that continuous was more effective than partial visual feedback; users disliked opaque cursors, and efficiency did not increase when cursors were larger than display artifacts’ size. Semantic visual feedback located at the display border improved users’ efficiency to return within the display range; however, the path of movement echoed in drag-and-drop operations decreased efficiency. Our findings contribute key ingredients to design suitable visual feedback for large-display touchless environments.This work was partially supported by an IUPUI Research Support Funds Grant (RSFG)
A Thematic and Reference Analysis of Touchless Technologies
The purpose of this research is to explore the utility and current state of touchless technologies. Five categories of technologies are identified as a result of collecting and reviewing literature: facial/biometric recognition, gesture recognition, touchless sensing, personal devices, and voice recognition. A thematic analysis was conducted to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the five categories. A reference analysis was also conducted to determine the similarities between articles in each category. Touchless sensing showed to have the most advantages and least similar references. Gesture recognition was the opposite. Comparing analyses shows more reliable technology types are more beneficial and diverse
User-Evaluated Gestures for Touchless Interactions from a Distance
Very big displays are now commonplace but interactions with them are limited, even poorly understood. Recently, understanding touch-based interactions have received a great deal of attention due to the popularity and low costs of these displays. The direct extension of such interactions, touch less interactions, has not. In this paper we evaluated gesture-based interactions with very big interactive screens to learn which gestures are suited and why. In other words, did ‘Minority Report’ get it right? We aim to discover to which extend these gesture interfaces are technology-driven and influenced by prototyped, commercial and fictive interfaces. A qualitative evaluation of a gesture interface for wall sized displays is presented in which subjects experienced the interface while completing several simple puzzle tasks. We found that simple gestures based on the act of pressing buttons was the most intuitive.\ud
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A comprehensive framework for the rapid prototyping of ubiquitous interaction
In the interaction between humans and computational systems, many advances have
been made in terms of hardware (e.g., smart devices with embedded sensors and
multi-touch surfaces) and software (e.g., algorithms for the detection and tracking of
touches, gestures and full body movements). Now that we have the computational
power and devices to manage interactions between the physical and the digital world,
the question is—what should we do? For the Human-Computer Interaction research
community answering to this question means to materialize Mark Weiser’s vision of
Ubiquitous Computing.
In the desktop computing paradigm, the desktop metaphor is implemented by a graphical
user interface operated via mouse and keyboard. Users are accustomed to employing artificial
control devices whose operation has to be learned and they interact in an environment
that inhibits their faculties. For example the mouse is a device that allows movements
in a two dimensional space, thus limiting the twenty three degrees of freedom of the
human’s hand. The Ubiquitous Computing is an evolution in the history of computation:
it aims at making the interface disappear and integrating the information processing into
everyday objects with computational capabilities. In this way humans would no more
be forced to adapt to machines but, instead, the technology will harmonize with the
surrounding environment. Conversely from the desktop case, ubiquitous systems make
use of heterogeneous Input/Output devices (e.g., motion sensors, cameras and touch
surfaces among others) and interaction techniques such as touchless, multi-touch, and
tangible. By reducing the physical constraints in interaction, ubiquitous technologies
can enable interfaces that endow more expressive power (e.g., free-hand gestures) and,
therefore, such technologies are expected to provide users with better tools to think,
create and communicate.
It appears clear that approaches based on classical user interfaces from the desktop
computing world do not fit with ubiquitous needs, for they were thought for a single user
who is interacting with a single computing systems, seated at his workstation and looking
at a vertical screen. To overcome the inadequacy of the existing paradigm, new models
started to be developed that enable users to employ their skills effortlessly and lower
the cognitive burden of interaction with computational machines. Ubiquitous interfaces
are pervasive and thus invisible to its users, or they become invisible with successive
interactions in which the users feel they are instantly and continuously successful.
All the benefits advocated by ubiquitous interaction, like the invisible interface and a more
natural interaction, come at a price: the design and development of interactive systems
raise new conceptual and practical challenges. Ubiquitous systems communicate with the real world by means of sensors, emitters and actuators. Sensors convert real world
inputs into digital data, while emitters and actuators are mostly used to provide digital or
physical feedback (e.g., a speaker emitting sounds). Employing such variety of hardware
devices in a real application can be difficult because their use requires knowledge of
underneath physics and many hours of programming work. Furthermore, data integration
can be cumbersome, for any device vendor uses different programming interfaces and
communication protocols. All these factors make the rapid prototyping of ubiquitous
systems a challenging task.
Prototyping is a pivoting activity to foster innovation and creativity through the exploration
of a design space. Nevertheless, while there are many prototyping tools and
guidelines for traditional user interfaces, very few solutions have been developed for a
holistic prototyping of ubiquitous systems. The tremendous amount of different input devices,
interaction techniques and physical environments envisioned by researchers produces
a severe challenge from the point of view of general and comprehensive development
tools. All of this makes it difficult to work in a design and development space where
practitioners need to be familiar with different related subjects, involving software and
hardware. Moreover, the technological context is further complicated by the fact that
many of the ubiquitous technologies have recently grown from an embryonic stage and are
still in a process of maturation; thus they lack of stability, reliability and homogeneity. For
these reasons, it is compelling to develop tools support to the programming of ubiquitous
interaction. In this thesis work this particular topic is addressed.
The goal is to develop a general conceptual and software framework that makes use
of hardware abstraction to lighten the prototyping process in the design of ubiquitous
systems. The thesis is that, by abstracting from low-level details, it is possible to provide
unified, coherent and consistent access to interacting devices independently of their
implementation or communication protocols. In this dissertation the existing literature is
revised and is pointed out that there is a need in the art of frameworks that provide such
a comprehensive and integrate support. Moreover, the objectives and the methodology to
fulfill them, together with the major contributions of this work are described. Finally, the
design of the proposed framework, its development in the form of a set of software libraries,
its evaluation with real users and a use case are presented. Through the evaluation and
the use case it has been demonstrated that by encompassing heterogeneous devices into
a unique design it is possible to reduce user efforts to develop interaction in ubiquitous
environments. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------En la interacción entre personas y sistemas de computación se han realizado muchos
adelantos por lo que concierne el hardware (p.ej., dispositivos inteligentes con sensores
integrados y superficies táctiles) y el software (p.ej., algoritmos para el reconocimiento
y rastreo de puntos de contactos, gestos de manos y movimientos corporales). Ahora que
se dispone del poder computacional y de los dispositivos para proporcionar una interacción
entre el mundo fisico y el mundo digital, la pregunta es—que se debería hacer? Contestar
a esta pregunta, para la comunidad de investigación en la Interacción Persona-Ordenador,
significa hacer realidad la visión de Mark Weiser sobre la Computación Ubicua.
En el paradigma de computación de escritorio, la metáfora del escritorio se implementa
a través de la interfaz gráfica de usuario con la que se interactúa a través de teclado y
ratón. En este paradigma, los usuarios se adaptan a utilizar dispositivos artificiales, cuyas
operaciones deben ser aprendidas, y a interactuar en un entorno que inhibe sus capacidades.
Por ejemplo, el ratón es un dispositivo que permite movimientos en dos dimensiones,
por tanto limita los veintitrés grados de libertad de una mano. La Computación Ubicua
se considera como una evolución en la historia de la computación: su objetivo es hacer
que la interfaz desaparezca e integrar el procesamiento de la información en los objetos
cotidianos, provistos de capacidad de computo. De esta forma, el usuario no se vería
forzado a adaptarse a la maquinas sino que la tecnología se integrarían directamente
con el entorno. A diferencia de los sistemas de sobremesa, los sistemas ubicuos utilizan
dispositivos de entrada/salida heterogéneos (p.ej., sensores de movimiento, cameras y
superficies táctiles entre otros) y técnicas de interacción como la interacción sin tocar,
multitáctil o tangible. Reduciendo las limitaciones físicas en la interacción, las tecnologías
ubicuas permiten la creación de interfaces con un mayor poder de expresión (p.ej.,
gestos con las manos) y, por lo tanto, se espera que proporcionen a los usuarios mejores
herramientas para pensar, crear y comunicar.
Parece claro que las soluciones basadas en las interfaces clásicas no satisfacen las necesidades
de la interacción ubicua, porque están pensadas por un único usuario que interactúa
con un único sistema de computación, sentado a su mesa de trabajo y mirando una
pantalla vertical. Para superar las deficiencias del paradigma de escritorio, se empezaron
a desarrollar nuevos modelos de interacción que permitiesen a los usuarios emplear sin
esfuerzo sus capacidades innatas y adquiridas y reducir la carga cognitiva de las interfaces
clásicas. Las interfaces ubicuas son pervasivas y, por lo tanto, invisibles a sus usuarios, o
devienen invisibles a través de interacciones sucesivas en las que los usuarios siempre se
sienten que están teniendo éxito. Todos los beneficios propugnados por la interacción
ubicua, como la interfaz invisible o una interacción mas natural, tienen un coste: el diseño y el desarrollo de sistemas de interacción ubicua introducen nuevos retos conceptuales
y prácticos. Los sistemas ubicuos comunican con el mundo real a través de sensores y
emisores. Los sensores convierten las entradas del mundo real en datos digitales, mientras
que los emisores se utilizan principalmente para proporcionar una retroalimentación digital
o física (p.ej., unos altavoces que emiten un sonido). Emplear una gran variedad de
dispositivos hardware en una aplicación real puede ser difícil, porque su uso requiere
conocimiento de física y muchas horas de programación. Además, la integración de los
datos puede ser complicada, porque cada proveedor de dispositivos utiliza diferentes
interfaces de programación y protocolos de comunicación. Todos estos factores hacen
que el prototipado rápido de sistemas ubicuos sea una tarea que constituye un difícil reto
en la actualidad.
El prototipado es una actividad central para promover la innovación y la creatividad a
través de la exploración de un espacio de diseño. Sin embargo, a pesar de que existan
muchas herramientas y líneas guías para el prototipado de las interfaces de escritorio, a
día de hoy han sido desarrolladas muy pocas soluciones para un prototipado holístico de la
interacción ubicua. La enorme cantidad de dispositivos de entrada, técnicas de interacción
y entornos físicos concebidos por los investigadores supone un gran desafío desde el punto
de vista de un entorno general e integral. Todo esto hace que sea difícil trabajar en un
espacio de diseño y desarrollo en el que los profesionales necesitan tener conocimiento de
diferentes materias relacionadas con temas de software y hardware. Además, el contexto
tecnológico se complica por el hecho que muchas de estas tecnologías ubicuas acaban
de salir de un estadio embrionario y están todavía en un proceso de desarrollo; por lo
tanto faltan de estabilidad, fiabilidad y homogeneidad. Por estos motivos es fundamental
desarrollar herramientas que soporten el proceso de prototipado de la interacción ubicua.
Este trabajo de tesis doctoral se dedica a este problema.
El objetivo es desarrollar una arquitectura conceptual y software que utilice un nivel de
abstracción del hardware para hacer mas fácil el proceso de prototipado de sistemas de
interacción ubicua. La tesis es que, abstrayendo de los detalles de bajo nivel, es posible
proporcionar un acceso unificado, consistente y coherente a los dispositivos de interacción
independientemente de su implementación y de los protocolos de comunicación. En esta
tesis doctoral se revisa la literatura existente y se pone de manifiesto la necesidad de
herramientas y marcos que proporcionen dicho soporte global e integrado. Además, se
describen los objetivos propuestos, la metodología para alcanzarlos y las contribuciones
principales de este trabajo. Finalmente, se presentan el diseño del marco conceptual,
así como su desarrollo en forma de un conjunto de librerías software, su evaluación con
usuarios reales y un caso de uso. A través de la evaluación y del caso de uso se ha
demostrado que considerando dispositivos heterogéneos en un único diseño es posible
reducir los esfuerzos de los usuarios para desarrollar la interacción en entornos ubicuos
Static Voronoi-Based Target Expansion Technique for Distant Pointing
International audienceAddressing the challenges of distant pointing, we present the feedforward static targeting assistance technique VTE: Voronoi-based Target Expansion. VTE statically displays all the activation areas by dividing the total screen space into areas such that there is only one target inside each area, also called Voronoi tessellation. The key benefit of VTE is in providing the user with an immediate understanding of the targets' activation boundaries before the pointing task even begins: VTE then provides static targeting assistance for both phases of a pointing task, the ballistic motion and the corrective phase. With the goal of making the environment visually uncluttered, we present a first user study to explore the visual parameters of VTE that affect the performance of the technique. In a second user study focusing on static versus dynamic assistance, we compare VTE with Bubble Ray, a dynamic Voronoi-based targeting assistance technique for distant pointing. Results show that VTE significantly outperforms the dynamic assistance technique and is preferred by users both for ray-casting pointing and relative pointing with a hand-controlled cursor
Dynamic motion coupling of body movement for input control
Touchless gestures are used for input when touch is unsuitable or unavailable, such as when interacting with displays that are remote, large, public, or when touch is prohibited for hygienic reasons. Traditionally user input is spatially or semantically mapped to system output, however, in the context of touchless gestures these interaction principles suffer from several disadvantages including memorability, fatigue, and ill-defined mappings. This thesis investigates motion correlation as the third interaction principle for touchless gestures, which maps user input to system output based on spatiotemporal matching of reproducible motion. We demonstrate the versatility of motion correlation by using movement as the primary sensing principle, relaxing the restrictions on how a user provides input. Using TraceMatch, a novel computer vision-based system, we show how users can provide effective input through investigation of input performance with different parts of the body, and how users can switch modes of input spontaneously in realistic application scenarios. Secondly, spontaneous spatial coupling shows how motion correlation can bootstrap spatial input, allowing any body movement, or movement of tangible objects, to be appropriated for ad hoc touchless pointing on a per interaction basis. We operationalise the concept in MatchPoint, and demonstrate the unique capabilities through an exploration of the design space with application examples. Finally, we explore how users synchronise with moving targets in the context of motion correlation, revealing how simple harmonic motion leads to better synchronisation. Using the insights gained we explore the robustness of algorithms used for motion correlation, showing how it is possible to successfully detect a user's intent to interact whilst suppressing accidental activations from common spatial and semantic gestures. Finally, we look across our work to distil guidelines for interface design, and further considerations of how motion correlation can be used, both in general and for touchless gestures
Understanding interaction mechanics in touchless target selection
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)We use gestures frequently in daily life—to interact with people, pets, or objects. But interacting with computers using mid-air gestures continues to challenge the design of touchless systems. Traditional approaches to touchless interaction focus on exploring gesture inputs and evaluating user interfaces. I shift the focus from gesture elicitation and interface evaluation to touchless interaction mechanics. I argue for a novel approach to generate design guidelines for touchless systems: to use fundamental interaction principles, instead of a reactive adaptation to the sensing technology. In five sets of experiments, I explore visual and pseudo-haptic feedback, motor intuitiveness, handedness, and perceptual Gestalt effects. Particularly, I study the interaction mechanics in touchless target selection. To that end, I introduce two novel interaction techniques: touchless circular menus that allow command selection using directional strokes and interface topographies that use pseudo-haptic feedback to guide steering–targeting tasks. Results illuminate different facets of touchless interaction mechanics. For example, motor-intuitive touchless interactions explain how our sensorimotor abilities inform touchless interface affordances: we often make a holistic oblique gesture instead of several orthogonal hand gestures while reaching toward a distant display. Following the Gestalt theory of visual perception, we found similarity between user interface (UI) components decreased user accuracy while good continuity made users faster. Other findings include hemispheric asymmetry affecting transfer of training between dominant and nondominant hands and pseudo-haptic feedback improving touchless accuracy. The results of this dissertation contribute design guidelines for future touchless systems. Practical applications of this work include the use of touchless interaction techniques in various domains, such as entertainment, consumer appliances, surgery, patient-centric health settings, smart cities, interactive visualization, and collaboration
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