Year: 2018
Type: dissertation
Abstract: As newer computing devices vary in their screen size and proximity to the user, they limit old and enable new affordances. However, our interactions still rely on a limited set of our anatomical capabilities which do not take advantage of these new affordances and usage scenarios. This thesis investigates how to use three different hand attributes, distinct fingers, the hand tactile sense, and hand dexterity, for novel interactions. We investigate these three attributes for three different device scenarios respectively - touch input for small touchscreen devices, touch output for wrist wearables, and touchless interactions for distant, large displays. With distinct fingers, we investigate how it can be used to solve the problem of limited input space in small touchscreens interactions and enable novel interfaces. With the hand tactile sense, we investigate how the persistent skin contact of wearable devices can be utilized to move the use of haptics beyond simple vibrations and make them a more central component of interaction. With hand dexterity, we investigate how it can solve the problems inherent in semaphoric and manipulative in-air gestures. Overall, we describe six investigations pertaining to these areas which show how the extended hand attributes can make existing tasks more efficient, make existing devices more expressive, and make novel interfaces possible.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Aakar Gupta
Language: English
Subfield: Human-Computer Interaction
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2921198086