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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Precision Pointing with Fat Fingers

Continued from page 1

By Michael Patrick Gibson
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An experiment conducted by the Microsoft team last summer compared Shift with Offset Cursor and with unassisted touch-screen use. During the study, 12 participants had to point their finger and press on a series of targets as they popped up on the screen. In these trials, the researchers found that Shift outperformed the other methods because it could adapt to different target sizes.

"The biggest benefit of Shift is the simplicity of pressing on the target itself," says Daniel Vogel, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, who assisted Baudisch on the project. "We found a way to help people without them having to think about doing something different than they would normally do with their finger."

In the experiment, the smallest targets Baudisch and Vogel presented were six-by-six pixels. For even smaller tasks, such as pinpoint drawing, the Shift team created a special application that lets users isolate individual pixels by magnifying the area copied in the pop-up window and increasing the sensitivity of the screen to the users' movements.

Ultimately, Baudisch believes that Shift could make it easier for users to switch tasks on their mobile devices, without eliminating the stylus altogether. He also hopes to use the same approach to streamline the interactions between phones, notebooks, and wall displays. "In the future, we'll be able to use very small screens to give us overviews of complex information and then quickly delve deeper into it on larger devices when necessary."

Baudisch declined to say exactly when Shift will be brought to market. But he is confident it won't be long.

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Comments

  • another method
    SVE on 05/23/2007 at 12:35 PM
    Posts:
    42
    Avg Rating:
    3/5
    How about having another simple pointing scheme: it behaves as normal. But when the user presses hard, the area around the pressure point expands in size as though being locally inflated. At the inflated scale, coarse finger movements can easily select tiny targets. This zoom mode is only initiated with high fingertip force. Reverting to normal force levels would leave everything unzoomed. Perhaps fingertip force could be deduced by the size of the screen contacted area.
    Rate this comment: 12345
    • Re: another method
      brunascle on 05/23/2007 at 1:16 PM      		 Technology Review TR Staff
      Web Developer
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      70
      Avg Rating:
      4/5
      that's interesting. i like that idea. i'm not sure about it being based on the size of the contact area though. just now, testing it by pushing on my desk, it doesnt look like you gain much contact area by pressing harder.
      Rate this comment: 12345
  • a help to old eyes
    pondpilot777 on 05/23/2007 at 1:18 PM
    Posts:
    4
    This new touch method will be good for those of us whose eyesight is not quite what it once was.  Besides, I constantly drop the stylus and it rolls under my seat on the train.  How about a "sticky wand"?
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • Minority Report
    themangib on 05/23/2007 at 1:35 PM
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    4
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    1/5
    Working in a three dimensional virtual space is the future. (?)  The present is the nascent glimmers.  We mention briefly using a stylus "takes time".  Current users of touch screens devise short-cuts, quick methods on an ad hoc basis (like blowing on Nintendo cartridges when they failed to work).  This will either supercede it positively, or rendered not so big a quantum leap in value-add and usability.  Interesting.
    Rate this comment: 12345
  • done before
    dinmu on 05/25/2007 at 2:51 AM
    Posts:
    2
    Avg Rating:
    5/5
    Have you seen the Apple screen blow up the icons when you mouse over?
    Rate this comment: 12345
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