Touch Devices Research Articles

Eye Tracking for Personal Visual Analytics.

In many research fields, eye tracking has become an established method to analyze the distribution of visual attention in various scenarios. With the trend toward increasingly affordable and easy-to-use consumer hardware, we expect mobile eye tracking to become ubiquitous, recording massive amounts of gaze data on a regular basis in everyday personal situations. To make use of this data, new approaches for personal visual analytics will be necessary to make the data accessible for non-expert users for self-reflection and re-experiencing interesting events. We discuss how eye tracking fits in the context of personal visual analytics, the challenges that arise with its application to everyday situations, and the research perspectives of personal eye tracking. Therefore, the extraction and representation of areas of interest (AOIs) in the recorded data is a crucial part of data processing. We present a new technique to represent these AOIs from multiple videos: the AOI cloud. In our example, we apply this technique to examine the personal encounters of a user with other persons. The technique provides an accessible user interface that is also applicable to touch devices and therefore suitable for an integration into the everyday life of a user.

Feasibility of using an iPod touch device and acceptability of a stigma reduction intervention with HIV-infected women in the Deep South.

As with many infectious diseases throughout history, stigma is a part of the trajectory of the HIV disease process. HIV-related stigma impedes women from being tested for HIV. Once infected, HIV-related stigma hinders women from disclosing their HIV status to sexual partners and health care providers, engaging in medical care, effectively self-managing the disease after infection, and adhering to anti-retroviral therapy. After three decades of the HIV epidemic, no evidenced-based, culturally relevant, gender-specific interventions exist to help women infected with HIV manage the stigma associated with HIV infection. This manuscript reports the feasibility of using an iPod touch device and acceptability of a stigma reduction intervention with HIV-infected women in the Deep South in a mixed-method, randomized clinical trial. Results from the study demonstrate that it is feasible to utilize an iPod touch device to deliver an HIV-related stigma intervention to women. Further, women report that the HIV-related stigma intervention is acceptable and meaningful.

Study of Touch Gestures Performance in Touch Devices by Young Children

Study of Touch Gestures Performance in Touch Devices by Young Children

Effect of Tactile Feedback for Button GUI on Mobile Touch Devices

This paper describes new tactile feedback patterns and the effect of their input performance for a button GUI activated by a tap gesture on mobile touch devices. Based on an analysis of touch interaction and informal user tests, several tactile feedback patterns were designed. Using these patterns, three user experiments were performed to investigate appropriate tactile feedback patterns and their input performance during interaction with a touch button. The results showed that a tactile pattern responding to each touch and release gesture with a rapid response time and short falling time provides the feeling of physically clicking a button. The suggested tactile feedback pattern has a significantly positive effect on the number of typing errors and typing task completion time compared to the performance when no feedback is provided.

Enhancing typing performance of older adults on tablets

Touch screen interfaces are increasingly more popular. However, they lack haptic feedback, making it harder to perform certain tasks, such as text entry, where users have to constantly select one of many small targets. This problem particularly affects older users, whose deteriorating physical and cognitive conditions, combined with their unfamiliarity with technology, can discourage them from using touch devices. The goal of this work was to thoroughly understand older adults touch typing behavior, in order to develop text-entry solutions more appropriate to their needs, which will enhance their typing performance. On a first phase, a baseline QWERTY keyboard and five different variants were developed that mostly used a text prediction algorithm to suggest the most probable keys or words. These keyboards were evaluated on a baseline study with 20 younger adults in order to find the most promising ones, which were then used in a study with 20 older adults. The older adults study revealed more about their typing behavior and therefore created four new variants to be used in a simulation study. Results show that visual changes should be kept to a minimum; touch points should be shifted upward and to the opposite side of the hand used to type; single touch keyboards perform better than multi-touch; and omitting keys below a certain time threshold minimizes accidental insertions.

The Effect of Tactile Feedback for Button GUI on Mobile Touch Devices

The Effect of Tactile Feedback for Button GUI on Mobile Touch Devices

Crawl-based analysis of web applications: Prospects and challenges

In this paper we review five years of research in the field of automated crawling and testing of web applications. We describe the open source Crawljax tool, and the various extensions that have been proposed in order to address such issues as cross-browser compatibility testing, web application regression testing, and style sheet usage analysis.Based on that we identify the main challenges and future directions of crawl-based testing of web applications. In particular, we explore ways to reduce the exponential growth of the state space, as well as ways to involve the human tester in the loop, thus reconciling manual exploratory testing and automated test input generation. Finally, we sketch the future of crawl-based testing in the light of upcoming developments, such as the pervasive use of touch devices and mobile computing, and the increasing importance of cyber-security.

Heuristics-based algorithm to dynamically adapt icon sizes and layouts on touch devices

This work1 provides an intelligent algorithm that analyzes the success (and failure) rate of a touch gesture in order to determine best size and layout of icons. Dynamic adaptation of icon size is done to best match device user's finger impression size resulting into reduction in failed tapings which would have otherwise occurred due to variations between icon size and finger's impression. Gravity of the said problem is analyzed by conducting a survey amongst 100 plus users. The implementation is also tested by building an android gaming application. The game is then released to limited set of users where dynamic icons sizes are generated based on user's score on successful taps on rapidly changing icons.

The effects of latency and motion blur on touch screen user experience

Touch interfaces are designed to be metaphors for physically manipulating virtual objects. However, this direct manipulation illusion is broken by the nonidealities of the device. We decouple and show the impact of touch-to-display latency and motion blur on the user experience of a touch system. Using a custom device, we achieve latencies down to ~1 ms, with frame rates up to 1000 Hz. Motion blur is reduced independently of frame rate using synchronized display modulation. Optimizing these metrics yields a dramatic improvement in the user experience, demonstrating the opportunity for higher performance in touch devices.

Touch sensors based on planar liquid crystal-gated-organic field-effect transistors

We report a tactile touch sensor based on a planar liquid crystal-gated-organic field-effect transistor (LC-g-OFET) structure. The LC-g-OFET touch sensors were fabricated by forming the 10 μm thick LC layer (4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl - 5CB) on top of the 50 nm thick channel layer (poly(3-hexylthiophene) - P3HT) that is coated on the in-plane aligned drain/source/gate electrodes (indium-tin oxide - ITO). As an external physical stimulation to examine the tactile touch performance, a weak nitrogen flow (83.3 μl/s) was employed to stimulate the LC layer of the touch device. The LC-g-OFET device exhibited p-type transistor characteristics with a hole mobility of 1.5 cm2/Vs, but no sensing current by the nitrogen flow touch was measured at sufficiently high drain (VD) and gate (VG) voltages. However, a clear sensing current signal was detected at lower voltages, which was quite sensitive to the combination of VD and VG. The best voltage combination was VD = −0.2 V and VG = −1 V for the highest ratio of signal currents to base currents (i.e., signal-to-noise ratio). The change in the LC alignment upon the nitrogen flow touch was assigned as the mechanism for the present LC-g-OFET touch sensors.

A Sketch-Based Approach for Interactive Organization of Video Clips

With the rapid growth of video resources, techniques for efficient organization of video clips are becoming appealing in the multimedia domain. In this article, a sketch-based approach is proposed to intuitively organize video clips by: (1) enhancing their narrations using sketch annotations and (2) structurizing the organization process by gesture-based free-form sketching on touch devices. There are two main contributions of this work. The first is a sketch graph, a novel representation for the narrative structure of video clips to facilitate content organization. The second is a method to perform context-aware sketch recommendation scalable to large video collections, enabling common users to easily organize sketch annotations. A prototype system integrating the proposed approach was evaluated on the basis of five different aspects concerning its performance and usability. Two sketch searching experiments showed that the proposed context-aware sketch recommendation outperforms, in terms of accuracy and scalability, two state-of-the-art sketch searching methods. Moreover, a user study showed that the sketch graph is consistently preferred over traditional representations such as keywords and keyframes. The second user study showed that the proposed approach is applicable in those scenarios where the video annotator and organizer were the same person. The third user study showed that, for video content organization, using sketch graph users took on average 1/3 less time than using a mass-market tool Movie Maker and took on average 1/4 less time than using a state-of-the-art sketch alternative. These results demonstrated that the proposed sketch graph approach is a promising video organization tool.

A randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of a stigma reduction intervention for HIV-infected women in the Deep South.

The aim of this study was to compare outcomes (self-esteem, coping self-efficacy, and internalized stigma) across time in HIV-infected women living in the Deep South who received a stigma reduction intervention (n=51) with those of a control group (n=49) who received the usual care at baseline, and at 30 and 90 days. We recruited 99 women from clinics and an AIDS service organization; they were randomized by recruitment site. A video developed from the results of a qualitative metasynthesis study of women with HIV infection was loaded onto iPod Touch devices. Participants were asked to watch the video weekly for 4 weeks, and to record the number of times they viewed it over a 12-week period. We examined the trajectory model results for efficacy outcomes for the intent-to-treat and the supplemental completers groups. There was a treatment-by-time effect for improved self-esteem (intent-to-treat: p=0.0308; completers: p=0.0284) and decreases in internalized stigma (intent-to-treat: p=0.0036; completers: p=0.0060), and a treatment-by-time-by-time effect for improved coping self-efficacy (intent-to-treat: p=0.0414; completers: p=0.0321). A medium effect of the intervention in terms of improving self-esteem was observed when compared with the control condition in those who completed the study. The magnitude of the intervention effect, however, was large with regard to reducing overall stigma, improving social relationships, and decreasing stereotypes in both groups.

Testing usability and trainability of indirect touch interaction: perspective for the next generation of air traffic control systems

This study aims to determine whether indirect touch device can be used to interact with graphical objects displayed on another screen in an air traffic control (ATC) context. The introduction of such a device likely requires an adaptation of the sensory-motor system. The operator has to simultaneously perform movements on the horizontal plane while assessing them on the vertical plane. Thirty-six right-handed participants performed movement training with either constant or variable practice and with or without visual feedback of the displacement of their actions. Participants then performed a test phase without visual feedback. Performance improved in both practice conditions, but accuracy was higher with visual feedback. During the test phase, movement time was longer for those who had practiced with feedback, suggesting an element of dependency. However, this ‘cost’ of feedback did not extend to movement accuracy. Finally, participants who had received variable training performed better in the test phase, but accuracy was still unsatisfactory. We conclude that continuous visual feedback on the stylus position is necessary if tablets are to be introduced in ATC.

The Effects of Multi-Modality on the Use of Smart Phones

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine multi-modal interaction effects of input-mode switching on the use of smart phones.<BR><BR> Background: Multi-modal is considered as an efficient alternative for input and output of information in mobile environments. However, there are various limitations in current mobile UI (User Interface) system that overlooks the transition between different modes or the usability of a combination of multi modal uses.<BR><BR> Method: A pre-survey determined five representative tasks from smart phone tasks by their functions. The first experiment involved the use of a uni-mode for five single tasks; the second experiment involved the use of a multi-mode for three dual tasks. The dependent variables were user preference and task completion time. The independent variable in the first experiment was the type of modes (i.e., Touch, Pen, or Voice) while the variable in the second experiment was the type of tasks (i.e., internet searching, subway map, memo, gallery, and application store).<BR><BR> Results: In the first experiment, there was no difference between the uses of pen and touch devices. However, a specific mode type was preferred depending on the functional characteristics of the tasks. In the second experiment, analysis of results showed that user preference depended on the order and combination of modes. Even with the transition of modes, users preferred the use of multi-modes including voice.<BR><BR> Conclusion: The order of combination of modes may affect the usability of multimodes. Therefore, when designing a multi-modal system, the fact that there are frequent transitions between various mobile contents in different modes should be properly considered.<BR><BR> Application: It may be utilized as a user-centered design guideline for mobile multi modal UI system.

Mediating sociality: the use of iPod Touch™ devices in the classrooms of students with autism in Canada

This study explores the roles that lower-cost, handheld touch technologies might play in the communication functions of children diagnosed on the autism spectrum. It reports on a case study of the use of Apple iPod Touch mobile digital devices in a public elementary school in downtown Toronto, Canada. Drawing from Vygotskian sociocultural theory researchers examined the consequences of handheld touch technologies on the communication and sociality of children with communicative disorders, with a primary emphasis on nonverbal autistic children. In the period between January 2010 and June 2010, iPod Touch devices were introduced into six elementary classrooms. While there were gains in communication for all participants, ranging from mild to significant, nine of the 12 students for whom we collected detailed data demonstrated statistically significant improvement in communication skills. Observations are made about the heightened levels of motivation, increased attention spans, and increased social interaction that students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibited when using these devices. Future research should explore the connection of touch-sensory inputs on the communication development of children with ASDs.

Online Signature Verification on Mobile Devices

This paper studies online signature verification on touch interface-based mobile devices. A simple and effective method for signature verification is developed. An online signature is represented with a discriminative feature vector derived from attributes of several histograms that can be computed in linear time. The resulting signature template is compact and requires constant space. The algorithm was first tested on the well-known MCYT-100 and SUSIG data sets. The results show that the performance of the proposed technique is comparable and often superior to state-of-the-art algorithms despite its simplicity and efficiency. In order to test the proposed method on finger drawn signatures on touch devices, a data set was collected from an uncontrolled environment and over multiple sessions. Experimental results on this data set confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in mobile settings. The results demonstrate the problem of within-user variation of signatures across multiple sessions and the effectiveness of cross session training strategies to alleviate these problems.

Augmenting the non-visual web browsing process using the geomagic touch haptic device

In this article, we describe an extension to a web browsing tool, designed to support individuals who are blind. The user is able to explore web-based content using the Geomagic Touch device. Both haptic and speech-based cues are presented when alighting over objects (e.g. images, hyperlinks, buttons and textboxes/textareas), replacing much of the structural information which can be difficult to obtain via a traditional screen reader. Findings from an observational study suggest that the tool offers promise to assist users with mapping the layout of objects on a web page. However, further refinements are needed, particularly when encountering smaller-sized objects located in close proximity to one another. In terms of future work, we aim to evaluate the tool with blind web developers who design for sighted audiences, or who work in teams with sighted developers, to determine whether the solution can support target users within the work environment.

AttachedShock: Design of a crossing-based target selection technique on augmented reality devices and its implications

The prevalence of touch devices in daily lives offers increasing opportunities for users to navigate the real world. However, as users move, on-screen targets move unpredictably, and eventually disappear from the screen in mobile navigation scenarios. The changing target movement pattern creates difficulties in selecting targets in time before targets escape from the screen. This study proposes a novel selecting technique, AttachedShock, for easing target selection tasks on augmented reality devices by crossing a naturally expanding wave pattern attached to targets. We evaluated the effectiveness of our technique by conducting three sets of comparative studies on measuring the performance of four techniques under various mobile navigation scenarios, i.e., various combinations of the identified factors. The results indicate that the proposed technique assists users in selecting moving targets to improve the error rate substantially, by a minimum of 76.51%, 61.75%, and 72.77% in Experiment-I, -II, and -III relative to state-of-the-art techniques, and incurs acceptable distractions to users, compared to other techniques.

Using the iPod Touch for Patient Health Behavior Assessment and Health Promotion in Primary Care.

BackgroundThere is a growing recognition of the importance of lifestyle behavior change for health promotion and disease prevention, as well as the concomitant influence of patient–physician communication on effective behavior change. Mobile technology is increasingly being recognized as an important and efficient tool to collect patients’ health behavior data and facilitate patient–physician communication.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of an iPod touch-based health behavior assessment (HBA) tool in enhancing patient–physician collaborative goal-setting for health promotion in primary care.MethodsA total of 109 patients from three primary care clinics in central Texas completed a brief HBA, which was programmed on an iPod touch device. An instant feedback report was generated for the patient and their physician simultaneously to facilitate collaborative goal-setting. Within approximately 7 days of the HBA, the patients were phoned for a follow-up survey for their feedback on the iPod touch–based HBA and resultant patient–physician communication.ResultsPatients were able to complete an HBA on the iPod touch with ease. Among those who completed the follow-up survey (n=83), 30% (25/83) reported that their physicians discussed the HBA report with them, while 29% (24/83) established behavior change goals with them. More than 90% (75/83) of the patients reported positive experiences with the iPod touch–based HBA.ConclusionsIt is feasible to use mobile tools for HBA in the primary care setting. The HBA also facilitated patient–physician communication on behavior change. However, more research is needed on the effectiveness of large scale dissemination of mobile-based HBA technology on health communication and behavior change for preventing or managing lifestyle-related chronic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, or heart diseases.

Motion control, motion sickness, and the postural dynamics of mobile devices

Drivers are less likely than passengers to experience motion sickness, an effect that is important for any theoretical account of motion sickness etiology. We asked whether different types of control would affect the incidence of motion sickness, and whether any such effects would be related to participants' control of their own bodies. Participants played a video game on a tablet computer. In the Touch condition, the device was stationary and participants controlled the game exclusively through fingertip inputs via the device's touch screen. In the Tilt condition, participants held the device in their hands and moved the device to control some game functions. Results revealed that the incidence of motion sickness was greater in the Touch condition than in the Tilt condition. During game play, movement of the head and torso differed as a function of the type of game control. Before the onset of subjective symptoms of motion sickness, movement of the head and torso differed between participants who later reported motion sickness and those that did not. We discuss implications of these results for theories of motion sickness etiology.