Eyes-Off Physically Grounded Mobile Interaction

This thesis explores the possibilities, challenges and future scope for eyes-off, physically grounded mobile interaction. We argue that for interactions with digital content in physical spaces, our focus should not be constantly and solely on the device we are using, but fused with an experience of the places themselves, and the people who inhabit them. Through the design, development and evaluation of a series ofnovel prototypes we show the benefits of a more eyes-off mobile interaction style.Consequently, we are able to outline several important design recommendations for future devices in this area.The four key contributing chapters of this thesis each investigate separate elements within this design space. We begin by evaluating the need for screen-primary feedback during content discovery, showing how a more exploratory experience can be supported via a less-visual interaction style. We then demonstrate how tactilefeedback can improve the experience and the accuracy of the approach. In our novel tactile hierarchy design we add a further layer of haptic interaction, and show how people can be supported in finding and filtering content types, eyes-off. We then turn to explore interactions that shape the ways people interact with aphysical space. Our novel group and solo navigation prototypes use haptic feedbackfor a new approach to pedestrian navigation. We demonstrate how variations inthis feedback can support exploration, giving users autonomy in their navigationbehaviour, but with an underlying reassurance that they will reach the goal.Our final contributing chapter turns to consider how these advanced interactionsmight be provided for people who do not have the expensive mobile devices that areusually required. We extend an existing telephone-based information service to support remote back-of-device inputs on low-end mobiles. We conclude by establishingthe current boundaries of these techniques, and suggesting where their usage couldlead in the future

Nonvisual, distal tracking of mobile remote agents in geosocial interaction

With the recent introduction of mass-market mobile phones with location, bearing and acceleration sensing, we are on the cusp of significant progress in location-based interaction, and highly interactive mobile social networking. We propose that such systems must work when subject to typical uncertainties in the sensed or inferred context, such as user location, bearing and motion. In order to examine the feasibility of such a system we describe an experiment with an eyes-free, mobile implementation which allows users to find a target user, engage with them by pointing and tilting actions, then have their attention directed to a specific target. Although weaknesses in the design of the tilt–distance mapping were indicated, encouragingly, users were able to track the target, and engage with the other agent