DoubleType: A wearable double bracelet concept for text entry

Wearable devices are used for text entry on a daily basis. Nowadays, people use their fingers to type text on touchscreens. Unfortunately, the screen size is too small to be able to type text for a longer period of time comfortably compared to quick tasks, such as checking social media posts or email. I present DoubleType, a wearable solution where two bracelets are used together to type text. When used together, the combined display area offers the user more screen estate for a larger software keyboard with larger keys to type and more area for the text being edited to look at. Three concepts were created and a paper prototype for each concept was produced. A video prototype was created to illustrate how the user interacts with the bracelets when entering text to the system. An online questionnaire was published and it contained images of the paper prototypes and a link to a video of the prototypes in use. 34 volunteers participated. Five background questions were asked and then five questions about the prototypes. In general, participants did not see DoubleType as a comfortable system to use for typing text. Also, majority of participants did not think DoubleType will help avoid getting neck and shoulder pains from typing text. And, most participants would not use DoubleType to type in a standing position for some parts of one's days to avoid sitting long periods of time. Of the three concepts, participants favored the most concept C, where the concept is put on a table. From the open-ended questions it was revealed participants disliked the size of the bracelets. There could be use of the prototype in a factory for technicians who need to make notes of the procedures they have done. Future research with working prototypes is needed to find out how ergonomic and efficient DoubleType is for text entry