Hand occlusion with tablet-sized direct pen input

ABSTRACT

We present results from an experiment examining the area occluded by the hand when using a tablet-sized direct pen input device. Our results show that the pen, hand, and forearm can occlude up to 47% of a 12 inch display. The shape of the occluded area varies between participants due to differences in pen grip rather than simply anatomical differences. For the most part, individuals adopt a consistent posture for long and short selection tasks. Overall, many occluded pixels are located higher relative to the pen than previously thought. From the experimental data, a five-parameter scalable circle and pivoting rectangle geometric model is presented which captures the general shape of the occluded area relative to the pen position. This model fits the experimental data much better than the simple bounding box model often used implicitly by designers. The space of fitted parameters also serves to quantify the shape of occlusion. Finally, an initial design for a predictive version of the model is discussed.

REFERENCES

• 1: Georg Apitz , François Guimbretière, CrossY: a crossing-based drawing application, Proceedings of the 17th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, October 24-27, 2004, Santa Fe, NM, USA [doi>10.1145/1029632.1029635]
• 2: Morgan Dixon , François Guimbretière , Nicholas Chen, Optimal parameters for efficient crossing-based dialog boxes, Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 05-10, 2008, Florence, Italy [doi>10.1145/1357054.1357307]
• 3: Dougherty, E.R. An Introduction to Morphological Image Processing. Bellingham, Wash., USA, 1992.
• 4: Clifton Forlines , Ravin Balakrishnan, Evaluating tactile feedback and direct vs. indirect stylus input in pointing and crossing selection tasks, Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 05-10, 2008, Florence, Italy [doi>10.1145/1357054.1357299]
• 5: Greer, T. and Lockman, J.J. Using writing instruments: invariances in young children and adults. Child Development 69, 4 (1998), 888(15).
• 6: Tovi Grossman , Ken Hinckley , Patrick Baudisch , Maneesh Agrawala , Ravin Balakrishnan, Hover widgets: using the tracking state to extend the capabilities of pen-operated devices, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, April 22-27, 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada [doi>10.1145/1124772.1124898]
• 7: Mark S. Hancock , Kellogg S. Booth, Improving menu placement strategies for pen input, Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2004, p.221-230, May 17-19, 2004, London, Ontario, Canada
• 8: Ken Hinckley , Francois Guimbretiere , Maneesh Agrawala , Georg Apitz , Nicholas Chen, Phrasing techniques for multi-stroke selection gestures, Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2006, June 07-09, 2006, Quebec, Canada
• 9: Ken Hinckley , Shengdong Zhao , Raman Sarin , Patrick Baudisch , Edward Cutrell , Michael Shilman , Desney Tan, InkSeine: In Situ search for active note taking, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 28-May 03, 2007, San Jose, California, USA [doi>10.1145/1240624.1240666]
• 10: Inkpen, K., Dearman, D., Argue, R., et al. Left-Handed Scrolling for Pen-Based Devices. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 21, 1 (2006), 91--108.
• 11: Paul M. Isaacs , Michael F. Cohen, Controlling dynamic simulation with kinematic constraints, Proceedings of the 14th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.215-224, August 1987
• 12: André Meyer, Pen computing: a technology overview and a vision, ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, v.27 n.3, p.46-90, July 1995 [doi>10.1145/221296.221308]
• 13: Pheasant, S. and Hastlegrave, C. Bodyspace: Anthropometry, Ergonomics and the Design of the Work. CRC, 2006.
• 14: Gonzalo Ramos , Ravin Balakrishnan, Fluid interaction techniques for the control and annotation of digital video, Proceedings of the 16th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.105-114, November 02-05, 2003, Vancouver, Canada [doi>10.1145/964696.964708]
• 15: Gonzalo Ramos , Andy Cockburn , Ravin Balakrishnan , Michel Beaudouin-Lafon, Pointing lenses: facilitating stylus input through visual-and motor-space magnification, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 28-May 03, 2007, San Jose, California, USA [doi>10.1145/1240624.1240741]
• 16: Chia Shen , Kathy Ryall , Clifton Forlines , Alan Esenther , Frederic D. Vernier , Katherine Everitt , Mike Wu , Daniel Wigdor , Meredith Ringel Morris , Mark Hancock , Edward Tse, Informing the Design of Direct-Touch Tabletops, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, v.26 n.5, p.36-46, September 2006 [doi>10.1109/MCG.2006.109]
• 17: Sun Microsystems. Java Advanced Imaging API. http://java.sun.com.
• 18: C. J. Van Rijsbergen, Information Retrieval, Butterworth-Heinemann, Newton, MA, 1979
• 19: P. Venkataraman, Applied Optimization with MATLAB Programming, Wiley-Interscience, 2001
• 20: Daniel Vogel , Patrick Baudisch, Shift: a technique for operating pen-based interfaces using touch, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 28-May 03, 2007, San Jose, California, USA [doi>10.1145/1240624.1240727]
• 21: Wagner, D. and Schmalstieg, D. ARToolKitPlus for Pose Tracking on Mobile Devices. Proceedings of 12th Computer Vision Winter Workshop (CVWW'07) , (2007).
• 22: Daniel Wigdor , Clifton Forlines , Patrick Baudisch , John Barnwell , Chia Shen, Lucid touch: a see-through mobile device, Proceedings of the 20th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, October 07-10, 2007, Newport, Rhode Island, USA [doi>10.1145/1294211.1294259]
• 23: Daniel Wigdor , Darren Leigh , Clifton Forlines , Samuel Shipman , John Barnwell , Ravin Balakrishnan , Chia Shen, Under the table interaction, Proceedings of the 19th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, October 15-18, 2006, Montreux, Switzerland [doi>10.1145/1166253.1166294]
• 24: Robert Zeleznik , Timothy Miller, Fluid inking: augmenting the medium of free-form inking with gestures, Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2006, June 07-09, 2006, Quebec, Canada

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Input devices and strategies (e.g., mouse, touchscreen)

General Terms:
Human Factors

Keywords:
hand occlusion, pen input, tablet pc