Abstract
Multi-touch systems are redefining the natural user interface paradigm and their applications can be found ranging from mobile phones, tablets and screens to the control of industrial facilities. While the concepts of multiple touch sensing are not new, there are still large unexplored areas regarding optimization of the user experience for various industrial or medical applications. Along with the ability to detect and process simultaneous touches and gestures, large scale multi-touch devices offer collaborative work along with user-selective content management systems features rarely used in dedicated medical visualization or sensing multi-touch software applications. Based on previous research concerning multi-touch systems and their potential usefulness in the medical field, this paper describes the optimization process of a multi-touch sensing device for biomedical applications. Three important layers of a multi-touch device were chosen as candidates for optimization: sensing, data manipulation and visualization. The results were applied to a prototype optical touch system developed for multi-user/multi-touch environments and several hardware and software modifications were designed and implemented. Since the goal of this research was to explore ways to enhance the user experience in multi-touch applications the conclusions derived from this paper can be extended to other domains where concurrent visualization and processing of information are vital components.
Highlights
Touch sensing systems have been used for decades as information visualization and control devices in a multitude of areas and domains
The form factor of these devices has varied from small phones and tablets to large-scale interactive tables and walls and while multi-user sensing is not feasible on small size screens, large devices can benefit from such an implementation
As part of the authors’ ongoing research, developing biomedical applications revealed a domain where –due to the nature of the rich data visualization requirements – multi-touch, multi-user systems can be successfully used for visual data manipulation
Summary
Touch sensing systems have been used for decades as information visualization and control devices in a multitude of areas and domains. There are many domains of interest where natural user interfaces can improve process control and information visualization by employing multiple user collaborative applications. As part of the authors’ ongoing research, developing biomedical applications revealed a domain where –due to the nature of the rich data visualization requirements – multi-touch, multi-user systems can be successfully used for visual data manipulation. As mentioned in [1], ‘Traditional computing workflows ‘coagulate’ our coordination behavior of supposedly collaborative tasks into a sequential nature’ the multi-user collaborative environment of a multi-touch device brings us closer to the natural user interface paradigm
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