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| Type | Dissertation |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | Drifts, Slips, and Misses: Input Accuracy for Touch Surfaces |
| Organization Unit |
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| Authors |
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| Language |
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| Institution | RWTH Aachen University |
| Faculty | Informatics |
| Number of Pages | 107 |
| Date | 2016 |
| Abstract Text | Touch screens allow users to interact with virtual objects directly below their fingertips. The proximity of input and output blurs the line between the physical and the virtual world, allowing the interactions to feel natural. However, direct finger input has several limitations. Compared to the tip of a graphics stylus, a fingertip is bigger and softer, making it more likely to occlude the screen and generate ambiguous touch signals. Furthermore, touch screens register any contact, making it more likely that they will respond to unintentional input, such as pressing a button when a finger just brushes pass it. These two problems exemplify issues in two types of input accuracy: space accuracy (“where it is being touched”) and state accuracy (“whether it is being touched”). In this thesis, we investigate space and state accuracy in four usage scenarios. First, we focused on users with hand tremors, whose involuntary finger oscillation causes them to miss targets and creates spurious touches and releases. To improve touch screen accessibility, we investigated how tremors influence touch input. Then, we designed and evaluated an alternative interaction technique that leverages the tremor movement characteristics for more accurate input. Second, we addressed a state accuracy problem in indirect multi-touch systems, in which a horizontal multi-touch screen is used to control cursors on a vertical display for ergonomic usage. We operationalized measures for state slips and compared four techniques for controlling the state of cursors. Third, we augmented touch screens with near-surface interaction by sensing fingers hovering in a thin layer above the screen surface. We determined appropriate layer thickness to minimize the likelihood that the fingers will slip out of the layer. Finally, we tackled the problem where touch contacts drift away from buttons when users employ touch screens without looking at them. Here, we assessed how magnetic forces might substitute for vision by guiding the fingertips towards the button in these scenarios. While the findings contribute to the body of scientific knowledge in each specific usage scenario, the insights derived from all four scenarios in combination suggest strategies for designing touch interaction techniques to maximize space and state accuracy. |
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