Rubbing and tapping for precise and rapid selection on touch-screen displays

Abstract

Figure 1. Rubbing and tapping gestures activate operations while the user is touching the display, so that additional parameter control and functionality can be activated during the fluid interaction. (a) Rubbing in and (b) rubbing out support two operations. (c) Bimanual interaction on single-touch displays is simulated with a set of "tapping" techniques, where operations are executed by tapping with a secondary finger (left), while the primary finger (right) is touching the display. ABSTRACTWe introduce two families of techniques, rubbing and tapping, that use zooming to make precise interaction on passive touch screens possible. Rub-Pointing uses a diagonal rubbing gesture to integrate pointing and zooming in a single-handed technique. In contrast, Zoom-Tapping is a twohanded technique in which the dominant hand points, while the non-dominant hand taps to zoom, simulating multitouch functionality on a single-touch display. Rub-Tapping is a hybrid technique that integrates rubbing with the dominant hand to point and zoom, and tapping with the nondominant hand to confirm selection. We describe the results of a formal user study comparing these techniques with each other and with the well-known Take-Off and ZoomPointing selection techniques. Rub-Pointing and ZoomTapping had significantly fewer errors than Take-Off for small targets, and were significantly faster than Take-Off and Zoom-Pointing. We show how the techniques can be used for fluid interaction in an image viewer and in existing applications, such as Google Maps.

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“…Surface gesturing, e.g., lifting the finger while it is positioned over the target (take-off) [23] or rubbing the target [21] are alternatives. In comparative studies, pressure technique and rubbing outperforms take-off.…”

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“…Another option for selection is to use the direction of shaking movement to make the selection. This is similar to marking menus or rubbing [27], in that the direction and form of the activation action also provides a specific selection.…”