A haptic wristwatch for eyes-free interactions

Abstract

We present a haptic wristwatch prototype that makes it possible to acquire information from a companion mobile device through simple eyes-free gestures. The wristwatch we have built uses a custom-made piezoelectric actuator combined with sensors to create a natural, inconspicuous, gesture-based interface. Feedback is returned to the user in the form of haptic stimuli that are delivered to the wrist. We evaluated the capabilities and limitations of our prototype through two user experiments. One experiment verified that the apparatus could be used as a tactile notification mechanism. The other experiment assessed the feasibility of using a cover-and-hold gesture on the wristwatch to obtain numerical data tactually. Results from the numerosity experiment and feedback from participants prompted us to redesign the cover-and-hold gesture to provide users with additional control over the interaction. We qualitatively evaluated the redesigned interaction by handing the prototype to users so that they could use it in a realistic work environment. Taken together, results from the experiments and the validation process indicate that a wrist accessory can be effectively used to perform discreet, closed-loop, eyes-free interactions with a mobile device.

Tactile Feedback for Above-Device Gesture Interfaces

“…Some wearables already have vibrotactile actuators for giving notifications (e.g. haptic wristwatch [16])-we think these could also be used for feedback while gesturing. Distal tactile feedback has already been used with large interactive surfaces and can be as effective as direct feedback, even when given on the inactive arm [17].…”

TactiPEd: Easy Prototyping of Tactile Patterns

“…It characterizes the system along a set of system properties or cognitive dimensions to illustrate its strengths and weaknesses and trade-offs to realize for effective use. An adapted version of the questionnaire (available online 1 ) was provided to the participants with continuous scales assessing each dimension and further questions to elicit feedback and possible improvements. The different dimensions that we used include: visibility (VIJU) for the visibility of the different parts of the system, viscosity (VISC) for the ease of making changes, diffuseness (DIFF) for the verbosity of language, hard mental operations (HMOS) for the demand on cognitive resources, error-proneness (ERRP), closeness of mapping (CLOS) for the closeness of representation to domain, role expressiveness (ROLE) to qualify whether the purpose of a component is readily inferred, progressive evaluation (PROG) for the ability of checking work-to-date at any time, provisionality (PROV) for the ability to play around with ideas, premature commitment (PREM) for constraints on the order of doing things, consistency (CONS) for the expression of similar semantics in similar syntactic forms and secondary notation (SECN) for the possibility to add extra information.…”

“…The development of wearable tactile devices, in the forms of bracelets [1,2,3], vests [4] or belts [5], has been increasing, in particular for mobile and wearable computing. By providing an alternative channel for communication, these devices enable the transmission of information in an eyes-free, ear-free and discrete manner, useful not only in contexts where other modalities are not available but also when they are heavily used, all the while letting the user focus on the surrounding environment.…”

“…The haptic modality has successfully been used for example for providing navigation cues [4,5,6], status information about mobile phone applications (e.g. activity of email inbox [1]) or for enhancing the education and learning [7], among many other existing applications. However, a lot of effort is still spent on designing appropriate, intuitive and discriminable vibrotactile cues, through numerous development iterations and user evaluations [8], often specific to one device and one application, and usually requiring specific device and programming knowledge.…”

Move, Hold and Touch: A Framework for Tangible Gesture Interactive Systems

“…One can touch an object in different manners: with one or more fingers, or with the whole palm. Pasquero et al [38], for example, distinguished between touching the wristwatch face with two fingers or with the whole palm. Also, one can hold an object applying forces, i.e., pressure, like for the squeezing gesture of tangible video bubbles [39].…”