The eleventh finger: levels of manipulation in multi-touch interaction

ABSTRACT

Motivation -- Multi-touch surfaces offer a great potential for collaborative activities due to direct interaction and engaging user experiences. User input is no longer mediated through indirect devices like keyboard or mouse; instead, users can work in parallel or quickly alternate between interacting persons. So far, only standard manipulation gestures for rotating, scaling, and translation have been established as natural interaction with multi-touch devices. In this contribution, novel tools and paradigms to enrich multi-touch interaction are investigated.

Research approach -- A workshop setting involving ten students, tutors, and business experts was used, in order to implement novel multi-touch prototypes over the course of two weeks.

Findings/Design -- Five case studies have been implemented based on Microsoft® Surface technology, exploiting different levels of manipulation.

Research limitations/Implications -- Exhaustive user studies concerning the presented model have not been conducted. Implications of the model are tentatively discussed, suggesting possible study designs for the future.

Originality/Value -- Five levels of manipulation are formalized in a model that can be used to design and evaluate cognitive ergonomics of new multi-touch interfaces for collaborative activities.

Take away message -- By implementing different levels of manipulation, multi-touch interfaces for collaborative interfaces can be made more powerful and enable users to easily achieve diversified results.

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Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Accessibility

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • Empirical studies in HCI

    • Interaction paradigms

• Information systems

  • World Wide Web

    • Web applications

      • Internet communications tools

        • Email