Remote Multitouch: In-Air Pointing Techniques for Large Display Interactions

Abstract

In this thesis we report on remote interaction techniques for horizontal and vertical large displays. For vertical large displays, we present MultiPoint, a set of perspective-based remote pointing techniques that allows users to perform bimanual and multi-finger remote manipulation of graphical objects on large displays. We conducted two empirical studies that compared remote pointing techniques performed using fingers and laser pointers, in single and multi-finger pointing interactions. The MultiPoint techniques were found suitable for interacting with vertical large displays. We explore techniques that are well suited for exclusively single-point use cases as well as for multipoint scenarios. With Pointable, we also explored perspective-based pointing with in-air gestures, but in a tabletop scenario. We conducted 3 experiments; the first showed that pointing at a distance using Pointable has a Fitts’ law throughput comparable to that of a mouse. In the second experiment, we found that Pointable had the same performance as multi-touch input in a resize, rotate and drag task. In a third study, we observed that when given the choice, over 75% of participants preferred to use Pointable over multi-touch for target manipulation. In general, Pointable allowed users to manipulate out-of-reach targets, without loss of performance, while minimizing the need to lean, stand up, or involve collocated collaborators.