Unobtrusive Movement Interaction for Mobile Devices

Abstract

Gesture control of mobile devices is an emerging user interaction modality. Large-scale deployment has been delayed by two main technical challenges: detecting gestures reliably and power consumption. There have also been user-experience- related challenges, such as indicating the start of a gesture, social acceptance, and feedback on the gesture detection status. This chapter evaluates a solution for the main challenges: an event-based movement interaction modality, tapping, that emphasizes minimal user effort in interacting with a mobile device. The technical feasibility of the interaction method is examined with a smartphone equipped with a sensor interaction cover, utilizing an enabling software framework. The reliability of detecting tapping is evaluated by analyzing a dataset collected with the smartphone prototype. Overall, the results suggest that detecting tapping is reliable enough for practical applications in mobile computing when the interaction is performed in a stationary situation.