Touchscreen Devices Research Articles

Investigating Gesture Typing for Indirect Touch

With the development of ubiquitous computing, entering text on HMDs and smart TVs using handheld touchscreen devices (e.g., smartphone and controller) is becoming more and more attractive. In these indirect touch scenarios, the touch input surface is decoupled from the visual display. Compared with direct touch input, entering text using a keyboard in indirect touch is more challenging because before the finger touch, no visual feedback is available for locating the touch finger. Aiming at this problem, in this paper, we investigate the feasibility of gesture typing for indirect touch since keeping the finger in touch with the screen during typing makes it possible to provide continuous visual feedback, which is beneficial for increasing the input performance. We first examine users' gesture typing ability in terms of the appropriate keyboard size and location in motor space and then compare the typing performance in direct and indirect touch mode. We then propose an improved design to address the uncertainty and inaccuracy of the first touch. Our evaluation result shows that users can quickly acquire indirect gesture typing, and type 22.3 words per minute after 30 phases, which significantly outperforms previous numbers in literature. Our work provides the empirical support for leveraging gesture typing for indirect touch.

42.3: Invited Paper: Silver nanowire for Next Generation Touch Solution

We developed a continuous roll‐to‐roll process for the fabrication of electrodes of silver nanowire (AgNWs) networks. For high‐throughput flexible electronic devices to be ready for the market, their transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) should show stable working performance during folding conditions and have a long operating life. In this study, TCEs were produced by AgNWs electrodes. The AgNWs electrodes showed an outstanding sheet resistance value of 50 ohm/sq, 92.3% transmittance, mechanical stability, and excellent long‐term stability. Flexible touch screen were produced using the AgNWs transparent electrodes on a flexible COP substrate. The touch screen performance is superior to that of a device based on the as‐coated AgNWs electrode. The roll‐to‐roll process provides a facile and reliable method for fabricating large‐area AgNWs transparent flexible electrodes for next‐generation flexible touch screen devices.

Collecting Sleep, Circadian, Fatigue, and Performance Data in Complex Operational Environments.

Sleep loss and circadian misalignment contribute to a meaningful proportion of operational accidents and incidents. Countermeasures and work scheduling designs aimed at mitigating fatigue are typically evaluated in controlled laboratory environments, but the effectiveness of translating such strategies to operational environments can be challenging to assess. This manuscript summarizes an approach for collecting sleep, circadian, fatigue, and performance data in a complex operational environment. We studied 44 airline pilots over 34 days while they flew a fixed schedule, which included a baseline data collection with 5 days of mid-morning flights, four early flights, four high-workload mid-day flights, and four late flights that landed after midnight. Each work block was separated by 3-4 days of rest. To assess sleep, participants wore a wrist-worn research-validated activity monitor continuously and completed daily sleep diaries. To assess the circadian phase, pilots were asked to collect all urine produced in four or eight hourly bins during the 24 h after each duty block for the assessment of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (aMT6s), which is a biomarker of the circadian rhythm. To assess subjective fatigue and objective performance, participants were provided with a touch-screen device used to complete the Samn-Perelli Fatigue Scale and Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) during and after each flight, and at waketime, mid-day, and bedtime. Using these methods, it was found that sleep duration was reduced during early starts and late finishes relative to baseline. Circadian phase shifted according to duty schedule, but there was a wide range in the aMT6s peak between individuals on each schedule. PVT performance was worse on the early, high-workload, and late schedules relative to baseline. Overall, the combination of these methods was practical and effective for assessing the influence of sleep loss and circadian phase on fatigue and performance in a complex operational environment.

Context Association in Glaucoma Patients Using a Touch Screen.

The results showed that people with glaucoma are able to perform with high accuracy a context-association task on a touch screen. This device could be a new possibility for communication and for clinical assessment. The present study was designed to investigate the ability of patients with glaucoma to use a touch screen to find and associate pictures with limited text. Eighty-four volunteers were recruited in 3 groups and tested binocularly or monocularly. Twenty-eight patients with binocular glaucoma (M=68.5 y) were selected with a visual acuity of 0.4 log MAR or better in each eye and visual field defects, with a mean deviation equal to or less than -6 dB in each eye. Twenty-eight age-matched controls (M=68.8 y) and 28 young controls (M=22.1 y) were also recruited (normal acuity; exclusion of ocular disease). The participants had to associate, by moving their index on a 22″ touch screen, a target on the unique scene (between 3 other distractor images) with a consistent background related to the target (eg, to match a fish with the sea). The performances of the glaucomatous patients were significantly (P<0.01) impaired in monocular vision compared with binocular vision with regard to the exploration duration (+2 s), accuracy (-3% of correct response), and peak speed (-10 cm/s). However, with binocular vision, representing daily life conditions, exploration duration, deviation, movement duration, peak speed, and accuracy were not affected by glaucoma, as demonstrated by comparison with the age-matched group. People with glaucoma are able to perform with high accuracy a context-association task on a touch screen. Many applications involving touch screen devices should provide new tools with limited text to help patients with visual disabilities.

Statistical Test Methodology for Evaluating Electromagnetic Information Leakage From Mobile Touchscreen Devices

This paper presents a statistical-test-based methodology for evaluating the electromagnetic (EM) emanations from mobile touchscreen devices. These EM emanations potentially contain information that can be exploited to reconstruct screen images of the device remotely. The proposed method evaluates the threat of such EM-based information leakage by performing a statistical test of measured EM waves and environmental noise without performing ad-hoc screen restoration or image processing. In particular, we employ the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, a nonparametric statistical test method, to compare two distributions of radiated EM waves: one that potentially contains screen information and another with environmental noise. In addition, this paper demonstrates the validity of our methodology via experiments involving authentic tablet devices in real-world settings and discusses a possible method to determine the confidence interval that can be adopted as a criterion for security evaluation depending on the environment.

Touch Screen Tester Device End-Effector

The paper describes the implementation of a new type of End-effector for testing touch screen devices. To automate the testing process of touch screens devices, a new type of end-effector is presented. The End-effector can be attached at diferent tipes of robotics sistem trough a connection part, which can be designed depending on the type of robot. For the movements in the test scenario, the end-effector is designed to move like a human hand. To create the physical parts in the prototype phase is used an field of rapid prototyping (RP) technology, called fused deposition modeling (FDM).

터치스크린을 통한 접근-회피 경험이 태도에 미치는 영향

터치스크린을 통한 접근-회피 경험이 태도에 미치는 영향

New insights into the indentation size effect in silicate glasses

When glasses resist permanent deformations, for applications such as a windshield or the cover of a touch-screen device, it is important to understand how they respond to inelastic energy dissipation processes. Many glasses exhibit the so-called Indentation Size Effect (ISE), where the indentation hardness is dependent on the maximum force exerted on the probe. In this study, we perform microindentation on silica and soda lime silicate glasses over a wide range of maximum forces and extract the Vickers hardness by the Oliver and Pharr method. The inelastic volume responsible for dissipating the inelastic energy is decomposed into densification and plastic flow, using surface topography and annealing. We show that the ISE is intimately linked to these mechanisms. Finally, we hypothesize the cause of the ISE is an increase in plasticity in a zone of material under the indenter probe experiencing reduced viscosity due to high strain rates and shear thinning.

Soft Magnetic Powdery Sensor for Tactile Sensing.

Soft resistive tactile sensors are versatile devices with applications in next-generation flexible electronics. We developed a novel type of soft resistive tactile sensor called a soft magnetic powdery sensor (soft-MPS) and evaluated its response characteristics. The soft-MPS comprises ferromagnetic powder that is immobilized in a liquid resin such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) after orienting in a magnetic field. On applying an external force to the sensor, the relative distance between particles changes, thereby affecting its resistance. Since the ferromagnetic powders are in contact from the initial state, they have the ability to detect small contact forces compared to conventional resistive sensors in which the conductive powder is dispersed in a flexible material. The sensor unit can be made in any shape by controlling the layout of the magnetic field. Soft-MPSs with different hardnesses that could detect small forces were fabricated. The soft-MPS could be applied to detect collisions in robot hands/arms or in ultra-sensitive touchscreen devices.

Gender recognition in smartphones using touchscreen gestures

This paper presents an approach for gender recognition in smartphones using touchscreen gestures performed by the user. The primary behavioral data comprising readings from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and orientation sensors are acquired while the user interacts with the touchscreen device. These measurements are further enriched by deriving a secondary set of gesture attributes such as swipe length and point curvature. The GIST descriptor-based features are then extracted from two-dimensional maps of the gesture attributes. Finally, a k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) classifier recognizes the user's gender based on a subset of features identified through feature selection. We have evaluated the performance of the proposed approach on two datasets, which consist of 2268 touch gestures from 126 subjects, collected using two different touchscreen devices. Our experiments show that the approach achieves higher gender classification accuracy compared to the existing method. In addition, the performance of our approach is consistent as it provides classification accuracy of 93.65% and 92.96% on the first and second datasets, respectively when multiple gestures are combined for gender recognition. Our study demonstrates that holistic image features considered in this work provide reliable information for smartphone-based gender classification.

Neural Activations Associated With Friction Stimulation on Touch-Screen Devices.

Tactile sensation largely influences human perception, for instance when using a mobile device or a touch screen. Active touch, which involves tactile and proprioceptive sensing under the control of movement, is the dominant tactile exploration mechanism compared to passive touch (being touched). This paper investigates the role of friction stimulation objectively and quantitatively in active touch tasks, in a real human-computer interaction on a touch-screen device. In this study, 24 participants completed an active touch task involved stroking the virtual strings of a guitar on a touch-screen device while recording the electroencephalography (EEG) signal. Statistically significant differences in beta and gamma oscillations in the middle frontal and parietal areas at the late period of the active touch task are found. Furthermore, stronger beta event-related desynchronization (ERD) and rebound in the presence of friction stimulation in the contralateral parietal area are observed. However, in the ipsilateral parietal area, there is a difference in beta oscillation only at the late period of the motor task. As for implicit emotion communication, a significant increase in emotional responses for valence, arousal, dominance, and satisfaction is observed when the friction stimulation is applied. It is argued that the friction stimulation felt by the participants' fingertip in a touch-screen device further induces cognitive processing compared to the case when no friction stimulation is applied. This study provides objective and quantitative evidence that friction stimulation is able to affect the bottom-up sensation and cognitive processing.

Vietnamese pre-schoolers’ tablet use and early childhood learning: an ecological investigation

ABSTRACTAs Vietnam’s economic growth and consumer demands continue to accelerate, more Vietnamese families are now able to acquire portable touchscreen devices such as iPads. Previous research has shown that the use of touchscreen devices can benefit pre-schoolers’ learning, especially within school and home settings. However, little is known about the broader sociocultural environment within which such technology adoption by families with pre-schoolers takes place, especially in the Global South. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecology of human development, this research investigates the ecology of tablet use and early childhood learning by pre-schoolers in Vietnam through an ethnographic investigation of 42 mother-child dyads. We found that Vietnamese pre-schoolers’ tablet use for the purpose of early childhood learning was initiated, sustained or even enforced by their parents. Vietnamese mothers strongly regard tablets as learning tools that give their children a distinct edge in educational achievement. However, such enthusiastic appropriation of the tablets was not matched by the mothers’ concomitant understanding of the benefits and risks of touchscreen devices for children, nor the availability of social scaffolding structures for the parents.

Polarization properties of silver nanowire/polymer composite films: diattenuation, retardance and depolarization

Polarization properties of silver nanowire (AgNW)/polymer composite films are investigated by spectroscopic polarimetry, with special attention to their potential application as the transparent conductive electrode of touch screen devices. The analysis of the Mueller matrix decomposition for preferentially oriented AgNW networks shows linear diattenuation and retardance, in addition to depolarization due to the scattering of light by AgNWs. Diattenuation, retardance and depolarization increases with increasing loading amounts of AgNWs. Conversely, depolarization decreases when the diameter of the AgNWs decreases. These polarization properties have an impact on the polarization state of the transmitted light. When applied to a model of liquid crystal display (LCD) with in-cell touch screen (AgNW composite film is placed between crossed linear polarizers), this results in light leakage. However, such leakage (transmittance) can be reduced to 7 × 10−4% by using AgNWs with a diameter of less than or equal to 23 nm, in a film with a sheet resistance of 50Ω/sq, and by aligning the optic axis of the composite film with the transmission axis of the polarizers.

The Use of Smart Technology in an Online Community of Patients With Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy.

BackgroundDegenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is a prevalent and progressively disabling neurological condition. Treatment is currently limited to surgery, the timing of which is not without controversy. New international guidelines recommend that all patients should undergo lifelong surveillance and those with moderate-to-severe or progressive disease should be offered surgery. Long-term surveillance will place substantial burden on health services and short clinic assessments may risk misrepresenting disease severity. The use of smart technology to monitor disease progression could provide an invaluable opportunity to lessen this burden and improve patient care. However, given the older demographic of DCM, the feasibility of smart technology use is unclear.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate current usage of smart technology in patients with self-reported DCM to inform design of smart technology apps targeted at monitoring DCM disease progression.MethodsGoogle Analytics from the patient section of Myelopathy.org, an international DCM charity with a large online patient community, was analyzed over a 1-year period. A total of 15,761 sessions were analyzed.ResultsIn total, 39.6% (295/744) of visitors accessed the website using a desktop computer, 35.1% (261/744) using mobile, and 25.3% (188/744) using a tablet. Of the mobile and tablet visitors, 98.2% (441/449) utilized a touchscreen device. A total of 51.3% (141/275) of mobile and tablet visitors used iPhone Operating System (iOS) and 45.8% (126/275) used an Android operating system. Apple and Samsung were the most popular smart devices, utilized by 53.6% (241/449) and 25.8% (116/449) of visitors, respectively. The overall visitor age was representative of DCM trials. Smart technology was widely used by older visitors: 58.8% (113/192) of mobile visitors and 84.2% (96/114) of tablet visitors were aged 45 years or older.ConclusionsSmart technology is commonly used by DCM patients. DCM apps need to be iOS and Android compatible to be accessible to all patients.

Mobile touch screen device use and associations with musculoskeletal symptoms and visual health in a nationally representative sample of Singaporean adolescents

This study aimed to describe contemporary technology use, especially smartphones and tablets (mobile touch screen devices), and examine associations with musculoskeletal symptoms and visual health among adolescents in Singapore. A representative sample of 1884 adolescents (50.4% girls) from grades primary 5 to post-secondary (10–18 years old), recruited from 13 schools, completed an online questionnaire in class. Total technology use was high, with smartphone duration being highest (mean = 264 [SD = 243] min/day). Patterns of use, including multitasking and bout length, were influenced by gender, school level, type of device and activities. Musculoskeletal discomfort and visual symptoms were commonly reported. After adjusting for potential confounders, more hours/day of smartphone use was associated with increased risk of neck/shoulders, upper back, arms and wrist/hand discomfort (OR = 1.04[95%CI = 1.01–1.07] to 1.07[1.03–1.10]) and visual symptoms (OR = 1.05[1.02–1.08]), but was associated with decreased odds of myopia (OR = 0.97[0.94–0.99]). No significant associations were found for tablet use.Practitioner Summary: 1884 adolescents in Singapore completed an in-depth questionnaire regarding their use of technology. The smartphone was the device with the highest usage, and greater smartphone use was associated with increased odds of musculoskeletal and visual symptoms. High use of smartphones has physical health implications for adolescents.

MathemAntics: a model for computer-based mathematics education for young children / MathemAntics: un modelo de enseñanza de matemáticas asistida por ordenador para niños

Computer-based early mathematics education, especially when implemented on a touchscreen device, can help young children learn basic concepts of number and operations in deep and engaging ways. We have developed MathemAntics — antic or playful mathematics — a software system that works on touchscreen tablets, to serve as a key aspect of mathematics instruction for children from age three to the early grades. This paper discusses the need for such software; describes and analyses currently available software; articulates the theoretical and design principles that form the basis of MathemAntics and can serve as the foundation for new software; presents a case study of a child using MathemAntics; and describes potential use of MathemAntics in a classroom setting. We invite readers to explore, investigate and use MathemAntics themselves.

Development of an Electrostatic Beat Module for Various Tactile Sensations in Touch Screen Devices

One of the most dominant factors in developing tactile modules is the ability to generate abundant vibrotactile sensation. This paper presents a new vibrotactile module which can stimulate two mechanoreceptors at the same time without any mechanical vibration motors. To realize that, we first design an electro-tactile beat module (an ETB module) consisting of a lower part, a connection part and an upper part. The two electrodes were designed in an interdigitated pattern and were applied to the upper part. By applying two voltage inputs with slightly different frequencies to two electrodes in the proposed ETB module, respectively, we can create beat-patterned vibration. Furthermore, we can create normal vibration with the proposed ETB module by applying same frequency to the two electrodes. Experiments were conducted to validate the haptic performance of the proposed prototype. The results show that the proposed ETB module can create not only beat-patterned vibration but also normal vibration. The results also show that it can generate strong enough vibration to stimulate mechanoreceptors in wide frequency ranges.

Rechargeable Aqueous Electrochromic Batteries Utilizing Ti-Substituted Tungsten Molybdenum Oxide Based Zn2+ Ion Intercalation Cathodes.

Batteries are used in every facet of human lives. Desirable battery architectures demand high capacity, rechargeability, rapid charging speed, and cycling stability, all within an environmentally friendly platform. Many applications are limited by opaque batteries; thus, new functionalities can be unlocked by introducing transparent battery architectures. This can be achieved by incorporating electrochromic and energy storage functions. Transparent electrochromic batteries enable new applications, including variable optical attenuators, optical switches, addressable displays, touch screen devices, and most importantly smart windows for energy-efficient buildings. However, this technology is in the incipient state due to limited electrochromic materials having satisfactory optical contrast and capacity. As such, triggering electrochromism via Zn2+ intercalation is advantageous: Zn is abundant, safe, easily processed in aqueous electrolytes and provides two electrons during redox reactions. Here, enhanced Zn2+ intercalation is demonstrated in Ti-substituted tungsten molybdenum oxide, yielding improved capacity and electrochromic performance. This technique is employed to engineer cathodes exhibiting an areal capacity of 260 mAh m-2 and high optical contrast (76%), utilized in the fabrication of aqueous Zn-ion electrochromic batteries. Remarkably, these batteries can be charged by external voltages and self-recharged by spontaneously extracting Zn2+ , providing a new technology for practical electrochromic devices.

A novel security scheme for behavioral authentication systems based on keystroke dynamics

This article presents a comprehensive analysis behavioral authentication systems based on keystroke dynamics using android mobile devices. Behavioral security authentication is an efficient biometric‐based security system that can be used to authenticate users. It is exploited to strengthen password authentication efficiently and inexpensively because no extra hardware is required in most of these schemes. Keystroke dynamic rhythm uses combinations of timing features and nontiming features that are extracted and processed from several devices such as classical keyboard and built‐in software keyboard in touch screen and smart phone devices. This work presents a comprehensive analysis of using biometric behavioral authentication system‐based on keystroke dynamics. Neural network classifiers are used in this work. The performance results show that keystroke dynamics provides good level in performance measures as a second authentication factor. The distinguishable role for nontiming features in addition to the timing features is demonstrated. These features have a significant role in improving the performance measures. The proposed model achieves low error rate of 0.3% for false acceptance rate, a false rejection of 1.5%, and an equal error rate of 0.9%. These are considered excellent enhancements when compared with previous reported results. Suggestions for future directions, and challenges for using behavioral‐based authentication systems are also highlighted.

Effects of Aging on Small Target Selection with Touch Input

Age-related declines in physical and cognitive function can result in target selection difficulties that hinder device operation. Previous studies have detailed the different types of target selection errors encountered, as well as how they vary with age and with input device for mouse and pen interaction. We extend this work to describe the types of age-related selection errors encountered with small touchscreen devices. Consistent with prior results, we found that older adults had longer target selection times, generated higher error rates, and encountered a broader range of selection difficulties (e.g., miss errors and slip errors) relative to a younger comparison group. However, in contrast to the patterns previously found with pen interaction, we found that miss error (i.e., both landing and lifting outside the target bounds) was a more common source of errors for older adults than slip error (i.e., landing on the target but slipping outside the target bounds before lifting). Moreover, aging influenced both miss and slip errors in our study of touch interaction, whereas for pen interaction, age has been found to influence only slip errors. These differences highlight the need to consider pen and touch interaction separately despite both being forms of direct input. Based on our findings, we discuss possible approaches for improving the accessibility of touch interaction for older adults.