Phone Sleight of Hand: Finger-Based Dexterous Gestures for Physical Interaction with Mobile Phones
ACM CHI 2023
Yen-Ting Yeh, University of Waterloo
Fabrice Matulic, Preferred Networks Inc.
Daniel Vogel, University of Waterloo
Abstract
We identify and evaluate single-handed “dexterous gestures” to physically manipulate a phone using the fine motor skills of fingers. Four manipulations are defined: shift, spin (yaw axis), rotate (roll axis) and flip (pitch axis), with a formative survey showing all except flip have been performed for various reasons. A controlled experiment examines the speed, behaviour, and preference of manipulations in the form of dexterous gestures, by considering two directions and two movement magnitudes. Results show rotate is rated as easiest and most comfortable, while flip is rated lowest. Using a heuristic recognizer for spin, rotate, and flip, a one-week usability experiment finds increased practice and familiarity improve the speed and comfort of dexterous gestures. Design guidelines are developed to consider comfort, ability, and confidence when mapping dexterous gestures to interactions, and demonstrations show how such gestures can be used in smartphone applications.
ACM Citation Format
Yen-Ting Yeh, Fabrice Matulic, and Daniel Vogel. 2023. Phone Sleight of Hand: Finger-Based Dexterous Gestures for Physical Interaction with Mobile Phones. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23), April 23–28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 19 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581121