ARO: Exploring the Design of Smart-Ring Interactions for Encumbered Hands

Abstract

Fingertip computing has seen increased interest through miniaturized smart-rings for augmenting digital peripherals. One key advantages of such always-available input devices is the non-necessity to hold a device for interaction, as it remains affixed to a finger for access when needed. Such a wearable device makes it possible to interaction with content even when the hand is encumbered, by grasping or holding objects. Our investigation aims at understanding the properties of this fundamental smart-ring advantage. We designed a smart-ring prototype, ARO (in-Air, on-Ring, on-Object interaction), which facilitates input while grasping objects. To better identify interaction possibilities, we present the results of an elicitation study through which we grouped various forms of micro-gestures possible with ARO while holding objects under different grasp requirements. We then explored the ability for users to perform different navigation tasks (i.e. zooming and panning) using the smart-ring with encumbered hands. In our studies, users were most efficient when using either In-air or On-ring interactions, in comparisons to gestures detected On-object. Furthermore, In-air was the most preferred by our participants. Based on our findings, we conclude with recommendations for the design of future smart-rings and fingertip devices at large, to allow efficient interaction while hands are encumbered.

Publisher Link

https://doi-org.uml.idm.oclc.org/10.1145/3447526.3472037

Citation

Sandra Bardot, Surya Rawat, Duy Thai Nguyen, Sawyer Rempel, Huizhe Zheng, Bradley Rey, Jun Li, Kevin Fan, Da-Yuan Huang, Wei Li, and Pourang Irani. 2021. ARO: Exploring the Design of Smart-Ring Interactions for Encumbered Hands. In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (MobileHCI '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 12, 1–11. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3447526.3472037

Bibtext Entry

@inproceedings{10.1145/3447526.3472037,
    author = {Bardot, Sandra and Rawat, Surya and Nguyen, Duy Thai and Rempel, Sawyer and Zheng, Huizhe and Rey, Bradley and Li, Jun and Fan, Kevin and Huang, Da-Yuan and Li, Wei and Irani, Pourang},
    title = {ARO: Exploring the Design of Smart-Ring Interactions for Encumbered Hands},
    year = {2021},
    isbn = {9781450383288},
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
    address = {New York, NY, USA},
    url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3447526.3472037},
    doi = {10.1145/3447526.3472037},
    abstract = { Fingertip computing has seen increased interest through miniaturized smart-rings
    for augmenting digital peripherals. One key advantages of such always-available input
    devices is the non-necessity to hold a device for interaction, as it remains affixed
    to a finger for access when needed. Such a wearable device makes it possible to interaction
    with content even when the hand is encumbered, by grasping or holding objects. Our
    investigation aims at understanding the properties of this fundamental smart-ring
    advantage. We designed a smart-ring prototype, ARO (in-Air, on-Ring, on-Object interaction),
    which facilitates input while grasping objects. To better identify interaction possibilities,
    we present the results of an elicitation study through which we grouped various forms
    of micro-gestures possible with ARO while holding objects under different grasp requirements.
    We then explored the ability for users to perform different navigation tasks (i.e.
    zooming and panning) using the smart-ring with encumbered hands. In our studies, users
    were most efficient when using either In-air or On-ring interactions, in comparisons
    to gestures detected On-object. Furthermore, In-air was the most preferred by our
    participants. Based on our findings, we conclude with recommendations for the design
    of future smart-rings and fingertip devices at large, to allow efficient interaction
    while hands are encumbered.},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction},
    articleno = {12},
    numpages = {11},
    keywords = {touch interaction, wearable computing, mid-air gestures, smart-ring},
    location = {Toulouse & Virtual, France},
    series = {MobileHCI '21}
    }