Holding a Multi-touch Tablet with One Hand: 3D Modeling and Visualization of Hand and Wrist Postures

Abstract

Multi-touch tablets are increasingly being used in highly mobile work environments such as sales support, medical charting, parts tracking, and field-based work requiring real-time data. Menu options, checklists, and data entry require precise gesture-based movements. The role of stabilizing the 2D gesturing surface while performing gesture input tasks, such as rotating an on-screen image, is undertaken by the non-gesturing hand, wrist, and forearm. This research investigates stabilizing postures of the non-gesturing hand while gesture input commands are being performed. Eleven healthy volunteers performed a series of one-handed gestures on a tablet device while in an erect, unsupported seated posture. Hand coupling postures and stabilizing motions of the hand and wrist in radial and ulnar deviation, flexion and extension, and pronation and supination, are modeled in three-dimensional space. Results offer preliminary data for hand coupling positions and resulting wrist and forearm postures for multi-touch tablet computer use. Keywords: hand and wrist stabilization modeling, multi-touch, postural analysis.