Precise selection techniques for multi-touch screens

The paper Precise selection techniques for multi-touch screens was published on April 4, 2006, by Hrvoje Benko, Andrew D Wilson and Patrick Baudisch, totally cited 530 times.^[5]

The paper presents five techniques called Dual Finger Selections to leverage multi-touch sensitive displays to help users select very small targets on display. This is to resolve the issues, in the terms of touch screen interactions, introduced by factors such as large finger size and the lack of sensing precision. To make use of the techniques, a user would adjust the control-display ratio using a secondary finger, while controlling the cursor movements using the primary finger. The paper also introduces SimPress, a clicking technique, which reduces motion errors during the process of clicking as well as enable hovering state on devices that are not able to support proximity.^[6]

The user study in paper reported that in terms of error rate reduction, the 3 chosen techniques (Stretch, X-Menu, and Slider) outperformed the control technique and were favoured by the participants. Among the chosen techniques Stretch, X-menu and Slider, Stretch has the best performance and preference overall.^[6]

Halo: a technique for visualizing off-screen objects

The paper Halo: a technique for visualizing off-screen objects was published on April 5, 2003, by Patrick Baudisch and Ruth Rosenholtz, totally cited 453 times.^[7]

The paper introduces Halo, a visualization technique that shows users the location of off-screen objects, to enable spatial cognition. Halo achieves this by showing parts of rings in border region of the display to indicate off screen objects. Users can then identify the exact location of the off-screen objects based on the location and portion of the rings that are visible.^[8]

The paper reported that users completed tasks 16-33% faster, giving no significant differences on error rates within the scope of the study.^[8]

Shift: a technique for operating pen-based interfaces using touch

The paper Shift: a technique for operating pen-based interfaces using touch was published on April 29, 2007 by Daniel Vogel and Patrick Baudisch, totally cited 429 times.^[9]

The paper proposes Shift, a pointing technique, so that users can touch target points on screens designed for styluses with high precision using their fingers rather than a stylus. Shift reduces targeting times and error rates by showing a copy of the targeted screen area at a separate location. Shift also shows a pointer to the actual selection point of the finger. Note that Shift is only enabled when the users find it necessary so that users have the option to have the conventional touch screen experience.^[10]

Report results show that participants' actions have much lower error rates than an ordinary touch screen, and shorter times overall for larger targets compared to Offset Cursor.^[10]

Drag-and-pop and drag-and-pick: Techniques for accessing remote screen content on touch-and pen-operated systems

The paper Drag-and-pop and drag-and-pick: Techniques for accessing remote screen content on touch-and pen-operated systems was published in August 2003 by Patrick Baudisch, Edward Cutrell, Dan Robbins, Mary Czerwinski, Peter Tandler, Benjamin Bederson and Alex Zierlinger, totally cited 405 times.^[11]

The paper presents interaction techniques Drag-and-pop and drag-and-pick, designed for display systems based on pen and touch interactions, and they grant users the access to see contents on screen that are otherwise not easy to reach. Drag-and-pop extends traditional drag-and-drop. More specifically, drag-and-pop responds to users by moving the potential target icons in users' cursor direction temporarily, so that users only need to move their hands on a smaller distance or scale. Drag-and-pick further extends drag-and-pop by activating icons such as to open folders or applications.^[12]

Results of the study report that drag-and-pop interface enables participants to file icons as fast as 3.7 times than the traditional drag-and-drop interaction on a 15' wide display.^[12]

Lucid touch: a see-through mobile device

The paper Lucid touch: a see-through mobile device was published on October 7, 2007, by Daniel Wigdor, Clifton Forlines, Patrick Baudisch, John Barnwell and Chia Shen, totally cited 303 times.^[13]

The paper focus on the difficult aspects of touch screens: touching the small screen of a mobile device can be inconvenient because users' hands and fingers could block the contents they plan to interact with. This paper introduces LucidTouch, a mobile device that users control from the back. LucidTouch displays an image of users' hands on screen, so that it gives the illusion that LucidTouch is transparent when in fact it is not. Users are able to interact with targets with greater precision because of the pseudo-transparency. Furthermore, like an ordinary mobile touch screen, LucidTouch reacts to multiple touch points at the same time so users can perform multi-touch actions^[14]

Initial study results illustrate that because of factors such as improved accuracy, and unblocked view of the screen, many users prefer interactions with LucidTouch than interactions with conventional devices.^[14]

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