Use of force plate instrumentation to assess kinetic variables during touch screen use

Touch screens are becoming ubiquitous technology, allowing for enhanced speed and convenience of user interfaces. To date, the majority of touch screen usability studies have focused on timing and accuracy of young, healthy individuals. This information alone may not be sufficient to improve accessibility and usability of touch screens. Kinetic data (e.g. force, impulse, and direction) may provide valuable information regarding human performance during touch screen use. Since kinetic information cannot be measured with a touch screen alone, touch screen-force plate instrumentation, software, and methodology were developed. Individuals with motor control disabilities (Cerebral Palsy and Multiple Sclerosis), as well as gender- and age-matched non-disabled participants, completed a pilot reciprocal tapping task to evaluate the validity of this new instrumentation to quantify touch characteristics. Results indicate that the instrumentation was able to successfully evaluate performance and kinetic characteristics. The kinetic information measured by the new instrumentation provides important insight into touch characteristics which may lead to improved usability and accessibility of touch screens.     

The influence of image interactivity upon user engagement when using mobile touch screens

Touch screens are a key component of consumer mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as an increasingly common self-service component of information retrieval on fixed screens and mobile devices in-store. The ubiquity of touch screens in daily life increases consumer accessibility and extended use for shopping, whilst software innovations have increased the functionality of touch screens, for example the extent to which images respond to fingertip control. This study examines how users engage with interactive visual rotation and tactile simulation features while browsing fashion clothing products on touch screen devices and thus contributes to retail touch screen research that previously focused on in-store kiosks and window displays. Findings show that three dimensions of user engagement (endurability, novelty and felt involvement) are positively influenced by both forms of manipulation. In order to examine the extent to which touch screen user engagement varies with individual preferences for an in-store experience, the paper also examines whether user engagement outcomes are mediated by an individual's need for physical touch. Findings indicate that the need for touch does not explain the variance between individuals. We conclude that touch screen technology complements the physical retail environment.     

Reactions,accuracy and response complexity of numerical typing on touch screens

Touch screens are popular nowadays as seen on public kiosks, industrial control panels and personal mobile devices. Numerical typing is one frequent task performed on touch screens, but this task on touch screen is subject to human errors and slow responses. This study aims to find innate differences of touch screens from standard physical keypads in the context of numerical typing by eliminating confounding issues. Effects of precise visual feedback and urgency of numerical typing were also investigated. The results showed that touch screens were as accurate as physical keyboards, but reactions were indeed executed slowly on touch screens as signified by both pre-motor reaction time and reaction time. Provision of precise visual feedback caused more errors, and the interaction between devices and urgency was not found on reaction time. To improve usability of touch screens, designers should focus more on reducing response complexity and be cautious about the use of visual feedback.

Practitioner Summary: The study revealed that slower responses on touch screens involved more complex human cognition to formulate motor responses. Attention should be given to designing precise visual feedback appropriately so that distractions or visual resource competitions can be avoided to improve human performance on touch screens.     

Evaluation of the safety and usability of touch gestures in operating in-vehicle information systems with visual occlusion

Nowadays, many automobile manufacturers are interested in applying the touch gestures that are used in smart phones to operate their in-vehicle information systems (IVISs). In this study, an experiment was performed to verify the applicability of touch gestures in the operation of IVISs from the viewpoints of both driving safety and usability. In the experiment, two devices were used: one was the Apple iPad, with which various touch gestures such as flicking, panning, and pinching were enabled; the other was the SK EnNavi, which only allowed tapping touch gestures. The participants performed the touch operations using the two devices under visually occluded situations, which is a well-known technique for estimating load of visual attention while driving.     

Design and evaluation approach for increasing stability and performance of touch pens in screen handwriting tasks

Touch pens allow user to write directly on a computer screen. An ergonomically designed touch pen can improve user performance and reduce musculoskeletal injuries. This study investigates the touch pen use in three sections. First, observations of users' handwriting during three screen tasks: writing, pointing-and-clicking and drawing. Second, examinations of the design and development of touch pens based on observed results and related design theory. Third, this study compares the five-point grip pen (FPGP) with the common touch pen. Study conclusions are as follows: (1) The gesture of gripping a common touch pen for on-screen handwriting is unnatural; that is, users tend to use the wrist, elbow or little finger for support. A user's hand and fingers are in a more natural position when using an FPGP. (2) User performance with the FPGP is superior to that with the common touch pen during three screen tasks. (3) The advantages of the FPGP include: increased hand stability, reduced hand fatigue, enhanced performance, and provided adjustability. (4) This study proposed an FPGP whereby a brace was added to a touch pen to increase the stability during screen-based tasks. The idea of adding a brace can be applied to those tasks requiring higher accuracy or continuous freehand without other limb support tasks, such as wall-painting, surgery operation, and other aiming tasks.     

Standing at a kiosk: Effects of key size and spacing on touch screen numeric keypad performance and user preference

Touch screen input keys compete with other information for limited screen space. The present study estimated the smallest key size that would not degrade performance or user satisfaction. Twenty participants used finger touches to enter one, four or 10 digits in a numeric keypad displayed on a capacitive touch screen, while standing in front of a touch screen kiosk. Key size (10, 15, 20, 25 mm square) and edge-to-edge key spacing (1, 3 mm) were factorially combined. Performance was evaluated with response time and errors, and user preferences were obtained. Spacing had no measurable effects. Entry times were longer and errors were higher for smaller key sizes, but no significant differences were found between key sizes of 20 and 25 mm. Participants also preferred 20 mm keys to smaller keys, and they were indifferent between 20 and 25 mm keys. Therefore, a key size of 20 mm was found to be sufficiently large for land-on key entry.     

Performance on the traditional and the touch screen,tablet versions of the Corsi Block and the Tower of Hanoi tasks

Psychologists routinely administer cognitive tasks to assess a range of mental abilities. In recent years, researchers and practitioners have employed new (i.e. digital) technologies to test cognitive performance, with tablet computer based tasks often replacing traditional versions. However, the extent to which findings from traditional and touch screen tablet based tasks are equivalent remains unclear. In the present study, sixty participants (18 men and 42 women) completed both the Tower of Hanoi and Corsi Block tasks in their traditional (wooden) form and using a touch screen tablet. Performance outcome measures (span length, number of moves, and time taken) were recorded alongside subjective workload for each task. Findings revealed that number of moves and span length do not significantly differ between the traditional and tablet based versions of each task. However, the computerized Tower of Hanoi task was completed more quickly than the traditional version. Differences were noted for subjective workload with higher physical demand reported for the traditional versions of each task. Participants also reported the traditional Tower of Hanoi task to be more enjoyable but more mentally demanding. In conclusion, the touch screen versions of the Tower of Hanoi and Corsi Block tasks appear largely equivalent to the traditional versions.     

Enhanced auditory feedback for Korean touch screen keyboards

With the increasing popularity of touch screen mobile devices, improving the usability and the user experience while inputting text on these devices is becoming increasingly important. Most conventional touch screen keyboards on mobile devices rely heavily on visual feedback, while auditory feedback seldom includes any useful information about what is being inputted by the user. The auditory feedback usually simply replicates the sounds produced by a physical keyboard. This paper describes the development of an enhanced auditory feedback mechanism for a Korean touch screen keyboard called the enhanced auditory feedback (EAF) mechanism. EAF has subtle phonetic auditory feedback generated using the acoustic phonetic features of human speech. While typing with EAF, users can acquire non-invasive auditory clues about the keys pressed. In this work, we compare conventional auditory feedback for a touch screen keyboard used in touch screen mobile devices with that of EAF and explore the possibility of using enhanced auditory feedback for touch screen keyboards.     

An ergonomics study of thumb movements on smartphone touch screen

This study investigated the relationships between thumb muscle activity and thumb operating tasks on a smartphone touch screen with one-hand posture. Six muscles in the right thumb and forearm were targeted in this study, namely adductor pollicis, flexor pollicis brevis, abductor pollicis brevis (APB), abductor pollicis longus, first dorsal interosseous (FDI) and extensor digitorum. The performance measures showed that the thumb developed fatigue rapidly when tapping on smaller buttons (diameter: 9 mm compared with 3 mm), and moved more slowly in flexion–extension than in adduction–abduction orientation. Meanwhile, the electromyography and perceived exertion values of FDI significantly increased in small button and flexion–extension tasks, while those of APB were greater in the adduction–abduction task. This study reveals that muscle effort among thumb muscles on a touch screen smartphone varies according to the task, and suggests that the use of small touch buttons should be minimised for better thumb performance.     

Two-mode target selection: Considering target layouts in small touch screen devices

A variety of studies have been conducted to improve methods of selecting a tiny virtual target on small touch screen interfaces of handheld devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. These studies, however, focused on a specific selection method, and did not consider various layouts resulting from different target sizes and densities on the screen. This study proposes a Two-Mode Target Selection (TMTS) method that automatically detects the target layout and changes to an appropriate mode using the concept of an activation area. The usability of TMTS was compared experimentally to those of other methods. TMTS changed to the appropriate mode successfully for a given target layout and showed the shortest task completion time and the fewest touch inputs. TMTS was also rated by the users as the easiest to use and the most preferred. TMTS could significantly increase the ease, accuracy, and efficiency of target selection, and thus enhance user satisfaction when the users select targets on small touch screen devices.

Relevance to Industry

The results of this study can be used to develop fast and accurate target selection methods in handheld devices with touch screen interfaces especially when the users use their thumb to activate the desired target.     

集成数字笔输入感应技术及触摸屏的应用

本文主要论述集成数字笔输入感应技术的分类、结构、工作原理、优点与不足、技术难点和应用范畴，最后简单介绍了触摸屏，并将笔输入感应技术与触摸屏技术加以比较，以求得对集输入、输出为一体的显示器屏幕技术有一个较全面的认识．     

Evaluating gaze-based interface tools to facilitate point-and-select tasks with small targets

Gaze interaction affords hands-free control of computers. Pointing to and selecting small targets using gaze alone is difficult because of the limited accuracy of gaze pointing. This is the first experimental comparison of gaze-based interface tools for small-target (e.g. <12 × 12 pixels) point-and-select tasks. We conducted two experiments comparing the performance of dwell, magnification and zoom methods in point-and-select tasks with small targets in single- and multiple-target layouts. Both magnification and zoom showed higher hit rates than dwell. Hit rates were higher when using magnification than when using zoom, but total pointing times were shorter using zoom. Furthermore, participants perceived magnification as more fatiguing than zoom. The higher accuracy of magnification makes it preferable when interacting with small targets. Our findings may guide the development of interface tools to facilitate access to mainstream interfaces for people with motor disabilities and other users in need of hands-free interaction.     

Virtual interpersonal touch: Haptic interaction and copresence in collaborative virtual environments

As digital communication becomes more commonplace and sensory rich, understanding the manner in which people interact with one another is crucial. In the current study, we examined the manners in which people touch digital representations of people, and compared those behaviors to the manner in which they touch digital representations of nonhuman objects. Results demonstrated that people used less force when touching people than other nonhuman objects, and that people touched the face with less force than the torso area. Finally, male digital representations were touched with more force than female representations by subjects of both genders. We discuss the implications of these data to the development of haptic communication systems as well as for a methodology of measuring the amount of copresence in virtual environments.

Biomechanical analysis of upper limb during the use of touch screen: motion strategies identification

Abstract

Nowadays touch technology is growing and developers try to make it ever more intuitive and easier to use. This present work focused on the upper limb joint coordination during the achievement of puzzles on touch screen. A 5-inch and 10-inch devices were used to perform 9 and 16 pieces puzzles dragged with digits. The conclusions showed an increase in joint solicitation with the number of piece and the touch screen size. Moreover, three interactions strategies proved to be an evidence: the ‘wrist strategy’ preferentially implying wrist flexion/extension, the ‘elbow strategy’ preferentially implying the elbow flexion/extension and the ‘neutral strategy’ mobilising equally the two joints. From an ergonomic point of view, the data about how the upper limb segments are mobilised while interacting with the screen could be relevant to increase the adaptability of the devices to the user, including users with motor impairments.

Practitioner Summary: Information about the biomechanical organisation of movement during interaction with touch devices appears relevant in order to develop applications adapted to the motor capacities of users. From the analysis of joint angles when performing several times a puzzle with healthy subjects, three motor strategies were highlighted.     

用于触摸屏交互的可穿戴指端力反馈系统设计

力触觉再现技术在增强用户与触摸屏交互的真实感和沉浸感方面发挥着越来越重要的作用,设计了一种面向触摸屏图像信息感知的可穿戴指端力反馈装置。设计基于线绳牵引驱动的指端力反馈机构,将装置分为驱动和可穿戴部分,使其具备小巧、轻便、易佩戴的特点。设计测控系统,实现了输出反馈力的检测和控制。研究图像信息提取和力触觉建模算法,获取图像中物体的三维特征信息,配合力反馈装置和测控系统实现图像纹理高度、外形轮廓信息再现反馈。实验结果表明,该装置最大可以提供5.3 N的反馈力,能够帮助用户感知触摸屏中图像的高度和形状信息。     

Interaction with an autostereoscopic touch screen: effect of occlusion on subjective experiences when pointing to targets in planes of different depths

It is well known that the usability of a typical touch screen depends on several parameters, including interface design, device characteristics, and input operations. However, there is virtually no knowledge regarding how people evaluate interaction with 3D display‐integrated touch screen. Twenty‐one participants were asked to use standard touch screen to point to targets in planes of different planes on an autostereoscopic display and evaluate how natural and easy this action was. Clear differences in pointing experiences across depth levels and input operators were found. Pointing to targets in a back plane was reported to be more natural and easier than the same action with targets in a front plane. The use of finger input was less unnatural than the use of a stylus, but the use of stylus with icons in the front plane was more fun and entertaining.     

Touchable area: An empirical study on design approach considering perception size and touch input behavior

As the use of mobile touch devices continues to increase, distinctive user experiences can be provided through a direct manipulation. Therefore, the characteristics of touch interfaces should be considered regarding their controllability. This study aims to provide a design approach for touch-based user interfaces. A derivation procedure for the touchable area is proposed as a design guideline based on input behavior. To these ends, two empirical tests were conducted through a smart phone interface. Fifty-five participants were asked to perform a series of input tasks on a screen. As results, touchable area with a desirable hit rate of 90% could be yielded depending on the icon design. To improve the applicability of the touchable area, user error was analyzed based on omission-commission classification. The most suitable design had a hit rate of 95% compared to 90 and 99%. This study contributes practical implications for user interaction design with finger-based controls.Relevance to industryThis research describes a distinctive design approach that guarantees the desired touch accuracy for effective use of mobile touch devices. Therefore, the results will encourage interface designers to take into account the input behavior of fingers from a user-centered perspective.     

触摸屏与智能电动推柜无协议通信的设计和实现

在自行研制的智能电动推柜系统中采用了智能化的触摸显示屏,提供了友好的可视化操作界面。智能化的触摸显示屏通常和PLC一起使用,编程很方便,但与不含PLC的控制系统的接口及编程方法则很少提及。本推柜的控制系统没有采用PLC,与触摸显示屏通信采用了触摸显示屏的无协议通信模式,通过K-BASIC语言编程,实现了控制系统和触摸显示屏之间的通信,实践证明该通信方法可靠有效。     

Enhanced user performance in an image gallery application with a mobile autostereoscopic touch display

In this study, we explored how stereoscopic depth affects performance and user experience in a mobile device with an autostereoscopic touch display. Participants conducted a visual search task with an image gallery application on three layouts with different depth ranges. The task completion times were recorded, and the participants were asked to rate their experiences. The results revealed that the image search times were facilitated by a mild depth effect and that too great a depth slowed search times and decreased user-experience ratings.     

基于气压传动和触摸屏的智能烫印机研发

针对当前烫印机采用薄膜轻触面板型人机界面交互性差、无网络功能、信息化和自动化水平低等问题,设计开发了一种新型智能烫印机。采用基于T5内核的串口电容触摸屏,实现了烫印工艺多模式交叉配置,提升了设备适应当前小批量定制化生产需求的能力。基于T5触摸屏集成的网络接口,实现了远程监控、算法升级、网络化生产管理。嵌入式控制系统以STM32F10系列32位高性能微控制器为核心,集成了烫印胶头温度测控模块和伺服电机驱动模块。采用UL2068达林顿管全数字化驱动气缸,高速全自动完成移印过程。实践应用表明:所开发的烫印机性能稳定,实现了烫印工艺、烫头恒温、伺服电机、高速气缸高性能一体化全自动控制。该烫印机集成度高,触摸屏显示界面友好,能够实现网络化控制与管理,具有广阔的工程应用前景。