mSpace Mobile: Exploring Support for Mobile Tasks

In the following paper we compare two Web application interfaces, mSpace Mobile and Google Local in supporting location discovery tasks on mobile devices while stationary and while on the move. While mSpace Mobile performed well in both stationary and mobile conditions, performance in Google Local dropped significantly. We postulate that mSpace Mobile performed so well because it breaks the paradigm of the page for delivering Web content, thereby enabling new and more powerful interfaces to be used to support mobility

Modelling and correcting for the impact of the gait cycle on touch screen typing accuracy

Walking and typing on a smartphone is an extremely common interaction. Previous research has shown that error rates are higher when walking than when stationary. In this paper we analyse the acceleration data logged in an experiment in which users typed whilst walking, and extract the gait phase angle. We find statistically significant relationships between tapping time, error rate and gait phase angle. We then use the gait phase as an additional input to an offset model, and show that this allows more accurate touch interaction for walking users than a model which considers only the recorded tap position

Comparing Evaluation Methods for Encumbrance and Walking on Interaction with Touchscreen Mobile Devices

In this paper, two walking evaluation methods were compared to evaluate the effects of encumbrance while the preferred walking speed (PWS) is controlled. Users frequently carry cumbersome objects (e.g. shopping bags) and use mobile devices at the same time which can cause interaction difficulties and erroneous input. The two methods used to control the PWS were: walking on a treadmill and walking around a predefined route on the ground while following a pacesetter. The results from our target acquisition experiment showed that for ground walking at 100% of PWS, accuracy dropped to 36% when carrying a bag in the dominant hand while accuracy reduced to 34% for holding a box under the dominant arm. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of each evaluation method when examining encumbrance and suggest treadmill walking is not the most suitable approach to use if walking speed is an important factor in future mobile studies

“I Did It My Way”: Moving Away from the Tyranny of Turn-by-Turn Pedestrian Navigation

No abstract available

Learning to drag: the effects of social interactions in touch gestures learnability for older adults

Considering the potential physical limitations of older adults, the naturalness of touch-based gestures as an interaction method is questionable. Assuming touch-based gestures are natural, they should be highly learnable and amenable to enhancement through social interactions. To investigate whether social interactions can enhance the learnability of touch gestures for older adults with low digital literacy, we conducted a study with 42 technology- naïve participants aged 64 to 82. They were paired and encouraged to play two games on an interactive tabletop with the expectation to use the drag gesture to complete the games socially. We then compared these results with a previous study of technology–naïve older adults playing the same games individually. The results of the comparisons show that dyadic interactions had some benefits for the participants in helping them to become comfortable with the drag gesture by negotiation and imitation. Further qualitative analysis suggested that playing pairs generally helped learners to comfortably explore the digital environment using the newly acquired skill

Bringing the High Seas into the Lab to Evaluate Speech Input Feasibility: A Case Study:SiMPE – 5th Workshop on Speech in Mobile and Pervasive Environments (part of ACM MobileHCI’2010)

As mobile technologies continue to penetrate increasingly diverse domains of use, we accordingly need to understand the feasibility of different interaction technologies across such varied domains. This case study describes an investigation into whether speechbased input is a feasible interaction option for use in a complex, and arguably extreme, environment of use – that is, lobster fishing vessels. We reflect on our approaches to bringing the “high seas” into lab environments for this purpose, comparing the results obtained via our lab and our field studies. Our hope is that the work presented here will go some way to enhancing the literature in terms of approaches to bringing complex real-world contexts into lab environments for the purpose of evaluating the feasibility of specific interaction technologies

Nomadic input on mobile devices: the influence of touch input technique and walking speed on performance and offset modeling

In everyday life people use their mobile phones on-the-go with different walking speeds and with different touch input techniques. Unfortunately, much of the published research in mobile interaction does not quantify the influence of these variables. In this paper, we analyze the influence of walking speed, gait pattern and input techniques on commonly used performance parameters like error rate, accuracy and tapping speed, and we compare the results to the static condition. We examine the influence of these factors on the machine learned offset model used to correct user input and we make design recommendations. The results show that all performance parameters degraded when the subject started to move, for all input techniques. Index finger pointing techniques demonstrated overall better performance compared to thumb-pointing techniques. The influence of gait phase on tap event likelihood and accuracy was demonstrated for all input techniques and all walking speeds. Finally, it was shown that the offset model built on static data did not perform as well as models inferred from dynamic data, which indicates the speed-specific nature of the models. Also, models identified using specific input techniques did not perform well when tested in other conditions, demonstrating the limited validity of offset models to a particular input technique. The model was therefore calibrated using data recorded with the appropriate input technique, at 75% of preferred walking speed, which is the speed to which users spontaneously slow down when they use a mobile device and which presents a tradeoff between accuracy and usability. This led to an increase in accuracy compared to models built on static data. The error rate was reduced between 0.05% and 5.3% for landscape-based methods and between 5.3% and 11.9% for portrait-based methods

Multimodaalinen joustavuus mobiilissa tekstinsyöttötehtävässä

Mobiili käytettävyys riippuu informaation määrästä jonka käyttäjä pystyy tavoittamaan ja välittämään käyttöliittymän avulla liikkeellä ollessaan. Informaation siirtokapasiteetti ja onnistunut siirto taas riippuvat siitä, kuinka joustavasti käyttöliittymää voi käyttää erilaisissa mobiileissa käyttökonteksteissa. Multimodaalisen joustavuuden tutkimus on keskittynyt lähinnä modaliteettien hyödyntämistapoihin ja niiden integrointiin käyttöliittymiin. Useimmat evaluoivat tutkimukset multimodaalisen joustavuuden alueella mittaavat vuorovaikutusten vaikutuksia toisiinsa. Kuitenkin ongelmana on, että ensinnäkään käyttöliittymän suorituksen arviointi tietyssä kontekstissa ei yleisty muihin mahdollisiin konteksteihin, ja toiseksi, suorituksen vertaaminen tilanteeseen jossa kahta tehtävää suoritetaan samanaikaisesti, paljastaa ennemminkin tehtävien välillä vallitsevan tasapainoilun, kuin itse vuorovaikutusten vaikutukset. Vastatakseen näihin ongelmiin multimodaalisen joustavuuden mittaamisessa, tämä diplomityö eristää modaliteettien hyödyntämisen vaikutuksen vuorovaikutuksessa mobiilin käyttöliittymän kanssa. Samanaikaisten, toissijaisten tehtävien sijaan modaliteettien hyödyntämisen mahdollisuus suljetaan kokonaan vuorovaikutuksesta. Multimodaalisen joustavuuden arvioinnin metodia [1] käytettiin tutkimuksessa osoittamaan kolmen aistikanavan (näön, kuulon ja tunnon) käyttöasteita mobiilissa tekstinsyöttötehtävässä kolmella laitteella; ITU-12 näppäimistöllä, sekä fyysisellä ja kosketusnäytöllisellä Qwerty -näppäimistöllä. Työn tavoitteena oli määrittää näiden käyttöliittymien multimodaalinen joustavuus ja yksittäisten aistikanavien arvo vuorovaikutukselle, sekä tutkia aistien yhteistoimintaa tekstinsyöttötehtävässä. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että huolimatta ITU-12 näppäimistön hitaudesta kirjoittaa häiriöttömässä tilassa, sillä on ylivertainen mukautumiskyky toimia erilaisten häiriöiden vaikuttaessa, kuten oikeissa mobiileissa konteksteissa. Kaikki käyttöliittymät todettiin hyvin riippuvaisiksi näöstä. Qwerty -näppäimistöjen suoriutuminen heikkeni yli 80% kun näkö suljettiin vuorovaikutukselta. ITU-12 oli vähiten riippuvainen näöstä, suorituksen heiketessä noin 50 %. Aistikanavien toiminnan tarkastelu tekstinsyöttötehtävässä vihjaa, että näkö ja tunto toimivat yhdessä lisäten suorituskykyä jopa enemmän kuin käytettynä erikseen. Auraalinen palaute sen sijaan ei näyttänyt tuovan lisäarvoa vuorovaikutukseen lainkaan.The mobile usability of an interface depends on the amount of information a user is able to retrieve or transmit while on the move. Furthermore, the information transmission capacity and successful transmissions depend on how flexibly usable the interface is across varying real world contexts. Major focus in research of multimodal flexibility has been on facilitation of modalities to the interface. Most evaluative studies have measured effects that the interactions cause to each other. However, assessing these effects under a limited number of conditions does not generalize to other possible conditions in the real world. Moreover, studies have often compared single-task conditions to dual-tasking, measuring the trade-off between the tasks, not the actual effects the interactions cause. To contribute to the paradigm of measuring multimodal flexibility, this thesis isolates the effect of modality utilization in the interaction with the interface; instead of using a secondary task, modalities are withdrawn from the interaction. The multimodal flexibility method [1] was applied in this study to assess the utilization of three sensory modalities (vision, audition and tactition) in a text input task with three mobile interfaces; a 12-digit keypad, a physical Qwerty-keyboard and a touch screen virtual Qwerty-keyboard. The goal of the study was to compare multimodal flexibility of these interfaces, assess the values of utilized sensory modalities to the interaction, and examine the cooperation of modalities in a text input task. The results imply that the alphabetical 12-digit keypad is the multimodally most flexible of the three compared interfaces. Although the 12-digit keypad is relatively inefficient to type when all modalities are free to be allocated to the interaction, it is the most flexible in performing under constraints that the real world might set on sensory modalities. In addition, all the interfaces are shown to be highly dependent on vision. The performance of both Qwerty-keyboards dropped by approximately 80% as a result of withdrawing the vision from the interaction, and the performance of ITU-12 suffered approximately 50%. Examining cooperation of the modalities in the text input task, vision was shown to work in synergy with tactition, but audition did not provide any extra value for the interaction