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Watchit: simple gestures and eyes-free interaction for wristwatches and bracelets

Published:27 April 2013Publication History

ABSTRACT

We present WatchIt, a prototype device that extends interaction beyond the watch surface to the wristband, and two interaction techniques for command selection and execution. Because the small screen of wristwatch computers suffers from visual occlusion and the fat finger problem, we investigated the use of the wristband as an available interaction resource. Not only does WatchIt use a cheap, energy efficient and invisible technology, but it involves simple, basic gestures that allow good performance after little training, as suggested by the results of a pilot study. We propose a novel gesture technique and an adaptation of an existing menu technique suitable for wristband interaction. In a user study, we investigated their usage in eyes-free contexts, finding that they perform well. Finally, we present techniques where the bracelet is used in addition to the screen to provide precise continuous control over list scrolling. We also report on a preliminary survey of traditional and digital jewelry that points to the high frequency of watches and bracelets in both genders and gives a sense of the tasks people feel like performing on such devices.

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM Conferences
      CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
      April 2013
      3550 pages
      ISBN:9781450318990
      DOI:10.1145/2470654

      Copyright © 2013 ACM

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      Publication History

      • Published: 27 April 2013

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      CHI '13 Paper Acceptance Rate392of1,963submissions,20%Overall Acceptance Rate6,199of26,314submissions,24%

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