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A framework for robust and flexible handling of inputs with uncertainty

Published: 03 October 2010 Publication History

Abstract

New input technologies (such as touch), recognition based input (such as pen gestures) and next-generation interactions (such as inexact interaction) all hold the promise of more natural user interfaces. However, these techniques all create inputs with some uncertainty. Unfortunately, conventional infrastructure lacks a method for easily handling uncertainty, and as a result input produced by these technologies is often converted to conventional events as quickly as possible, leading to a stunted interactive experience. We present a framework for handling input with uncertainty in a systematic, extensible, and easy to manipulate fashion. To illustrate this framework, we present several traditional interactors which have been extended to provide feedback about uncertain inputs and to allow for the possibility that in the end that input will be judged wrong (or end up going to a different interactor). Our six demonstrations include tiny buttons that are manipulable using touch input, a text box that can handle multiple interpretations of spoken input, a scrollbar that can respond to inexactly placed input, and buttons which are easier to click for people with motor impairments. Our framework supports all of these interactions by carrying uncertainty forward all the way through selection of possible target interactors, interpretation by interactors, generation of (uncertain) candidate actions to take, and a mediation process that decides (in a lazy fashion) which actions should become final.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    UIST '10: Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
    October 2010
    476 pages
    ISBN:9781450302715
    DOI:10.1145/1866029
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Published: 03 October 2010

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    1. ambiguity
    2. input handling
    3. recognition

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    • (2024)A Type System for Flexible User Interactions HandlingProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36602488:EICS(1-27)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
    • (2024)TouchInsight: Uncertainty-aware Rapid Touch and Text Input for Mixed Reality from Egocentric VisionProceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3654777.3676330(1-16)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Do I Just Tap My Headset?Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36314517:4(1-28)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2024
    • (2023)XR Input Error Mediation for Hand-Based Input: Task and Context Influences a User’s Preference2023 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR)10.1109/ISMAR59233.2023.00117(1006-1015)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
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    • (2022)Weighted Pointer: Error-aware Gaze-based Interaction through Fallback ModalitiesIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2022.320309628:11(3585-3595)Online publication date: Nov-2022
    • (2021)Building Adaptive Touch Interfaces—Case Study 6Intelligent Computing for Interactive System Design10.1145/3447404.3447426(379-406)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2021
    • (2021)A Probabilistic Interpretation of Motion Correlation Selection TechniquesProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445184(1-13)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
    • (2020)Using Bayes' Theorem for Command Input: Principle, Models, and ApplicationsProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3313831.3376771(1-15)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2020
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