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Investigating large curved interaction devices

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Abstract

Large interactive surfaces enable novel forms of interaction for their users, particularly in terms of collaborative interaction. During longer interactions, the ergonomic factors of interaction systems have to be taken into consideration. Using the full interaction space may require considerable motion of the arms and upper body over a prolonged period of time, potentially causing fatigue. In this work, we present Curved, a large-surface interaction device, whose shape is designed based on the natural movement of an outstretched arm. It is able to track one or two hands above or on its surface by using 32 capacitive proximity sensors. Supporting both touch and mid-air interaction can enable more versatile modes of use. We use image processing methods for tracking the user’s hands and classify gestures based on their motion. Virtual reality is a potential use case for such interaction systems and was chosen for our demonstration application. We conducted a study with ten users to test the gesture tracking performance, as well as user experience and user preference for the adjustable system parameters.

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  1. http://simple.sourceforge.net/

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Stefan Krepp, Steeven Zeiss, Joachim Loge, and Maxim Djakow for their input to the hardware and software development, as well as our study participants for their valuable comments.

Funding

This work was partially supported by EC Grant Agreement No. 610840.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD, Fraunhoferstr. 5, 64283, Darmstadt, Germany

    Andreas Braun, Sebastian Zander-Walz, Martin Majewski & Arjan Kuijper

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  1. Andreas Braun
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  2. Sebastian Zander-Walz
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  3. Martin Majewski
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  4. Arjan Kuijper
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andreas Braun.

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Braun, A., Zander-Walz, S., Majewski, M. et al. Investigating large curved interaction devices. Pers Ubiquit Comput 23, 739–748 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-018-1109-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-018-1109-6

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