11-09-2014, 01:03 PM
Skinput:
[attachment=67830]
ABSTRACT
We present Skinput, a technology that appropriates the hu-man body for acoustic transmission, allowing the skin to be used as an input surface. In particular, we resolve the loca-tion of finger taps on the arm and hand by analyzing me-chanical vibrations that propagate through the body. We collect these signals using a novel array of sensors worn as an armband. This approach provides an always available, naturally portable, and on-body finger input system. We assess the capabilities, accuracy and limitations of our tech-nique through a two-part, twenty-participant user study. To further illustrate the utility of our approach, we conclude with several proof-of-concept applications we developed.
INTRODUCTION
Devices with significant computational power and capabili-ties can now be easily carried on our bodies. However, their small size typically leads to limited interaction space (e.g., diminutive screens, buttons, and jog wheels) and consequently diminishes their usability and functionality. Since we cannot simply make buttons and screens larger without losing the primary benefit of small size, we consider alter-native approaches that enhance interactions with
small mo-bile systems.
One option is to opportunistically appropriate
surface area from the environment for interactive purposes. For exam-ple, [10] describes a technique that allows a small mobile device to turn tables on which it rests into a gestural finger input canvas. However, tables are not always present, and in a mobile context, users are unlikely to want to carry ap-
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.
SKINPUT
To expand the range of sensing modalities for always-available input systems, we introduce Skinput, a novel input technique that allows the skin to be used as a finger input surface. In our prototype system, we choose to focus on the arm (although the technique could be applied elsewhere). This is an attractive area to appropriate as it provides consi-derable surface area for interaction, including a contiguous and flat area for projection (discussed subsequently). Fur-
CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have presented our approach to appropriat-ing the human body as an input surface. We have described a novel, wearable bio-acoustic sensing array that we built into an armband in order to detect and localize finger taps on the forearm and hand. Results from our experiments have shown that our system performs very well for a series of gestures, even when the body is in motion. Additionally, we have presented initial results demonstrating other poten-tial uses of our approach, which we hope to further explore in future work. These include single-handed gestures, taps with different parts of the finger, and differentiating be-tween materials and objects. We conclude with descriptions of several prototype applications that demonstrate the rich design space we believe Skinput enables
[attachment=67830]
ABSTRACT
We present Skinput, a technology that appropriates the hu-man body for acoustic transmission, allowing the skin to be used as an input surface. In particular, we resolve the loca-tion of finger taps on the arm and hand by analyzing me-chanical vibrations that propagate through the body. We collect these signals using a novel array of sensors worn as an armband. This approach provides an always available, naturally portable, and on-body finger input system. We assess the capabilities, accuracy and limitations of our tech-nique through a two-part, twenty-participant user study. To further illustrate the utility of our approach, we conclude with several proof-of-concept applications we developed.
INTRODUCTION
Devices with significant computational power and capabili-ties can now be easily carried on our bodies. However, their small size typically leads to limited interaction space (e.g., diminutive screens, buttons, and jog wheels) and consequently diminishes their usability and functionality. Since we cannot simply make buttons and screens larger without losing the primary benefit of small size, we consider alter-native approaches that enhance interactions with
small mo-bile systems.
One option is to opportunistically appropriate
surface area from the environment for interactive purposes. For exam-ple, [10] describes a technique that allows a small mobile device to turn tables on which it rests into a gestural finger input canvas. However, tables are not always present, and in a mobile context, users are unlikely to want to carry ap-
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.
SKINPUT
To expand the range of sensing modalities for always-available input systems, we introduce Skinput, a novel input technique that allows the skin to be used as a finger input surface. In our prototype system, we choose to focus on the arm (although the technique could be applied elsewhere). This is an attractive area to appropriate as it provides consi-derable surface area for interaction, including a contiguous and flat area for projection (discussed subsequently). Fur-
CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have presented our approach to appropriat-ing the human body as an input surface. We have described a novel, wearable bio-acoustic sensing array that we built into an armband in order to detect and localize finger taps on the forearm and hand. Results from our experiments have shown that our system performs very well for a series of gestures, even when the body is in motion. Additionally, we have presented initial results demonstrating other poten-tial uses of our approach, which we hope to further explore in future work. These include single-handed gestures, taps with different parts of the finger, and differentiating be-tween materials and objects. We conclude with descriptions of several prototype applications that demonstrate the rich design space we believe Skinput enables