Abstract
Mobile devices such as mobile phone or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) are considered as main interface tools in ubiquitous computing environment. Mobile devices will be used as portable terminals for exchanging information with surrounding computers. For searching information in mobile device, it should be possible for user to input some text including special characters or strings as well as to control cursor for navigation. So, we should find efficient interface method for text input in limited dimension of mobile devices. This study intends to suggest a new approach to mobile interaction using camera based virtual keyboard for text input in mobile devices. We developed a camera based virtual keyboard prototype using a PC camera and a small size LCD display. The prototype is based on the concept of the Augmented Reality. A PC camera is attached to the top of small LCD display for tracking reference point. User can move the prototype in the air to control the cursor over keyboard layout in screen and input text by pressing a button. We evaluated the efficiency of text input compared to existing methods including mobile phone keypad and thumb keyboard. The new interaction method in this study is evaluated as competitive compared to mobile phone keypad in text input efficiency. The results of comparison test shows that the new method is a little bit faster than numeric keypad. And beyond equality, the new method has some advantages. The new method can be operated by one hand and make it possible to design smaller device by eliminating keyboard part. The new interaction method can be applied to text input method for mobile devices requiring especially small dimension. And this method can be modified to selection and navigation method for wireless internet contents on small screen devices.
Citation
Hyung Byun, J., and Kim, M. (2004) A New Approach to Mobile Interaction: Development of Camera Based Input Method., in Redmond, J., Durling, D. and de Bono, A (eds.), Futureground - DRS International Conference 2004, 17-21 November, Melbourne, Australia. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2004/researchpapers/77
A New Approach to Mobile Interaction: Development of Camera Based Input Method.
Mobile devices such as mobile phone or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) are considered as main interface tools in ubiquitous computing environment. Mobile devices will be used as portable terminals for exchanging information with surrounding computers. For searching information in mobile device, it should be possible for user to input some text including special characters or strings as well as to control cursor for navigation. So, we should find efficient interface method for text input in limited dimension of mobile devices. This study intends to suggest a new approach to mobile interaction using camera based virtual keyboard for text input in mobile devices. We developed a camera based virtual keyboard prototype using a PC camera and a small size LCD display. The prototype is based on the concept of the Augmented Reality. A PC camera is attached to the top of small LCD display for tracking reference point. User can move the prototype in the air to control the cursor over keyboard layout in screen and input text by pressing a button. We evaluated the efficiency of text input compared to existing methods including mobile phone keypad and thumb keyboard. The new interaction method in this study is evaluated as competitive compared to mobile phone keypad in text input efficiency. The results of comparison test shows that the new method is a little bit faster than numeric keypad. And beyond equality, the new method has some advantages. The new method can be operated by one hand and make it possible to design smaller device by eliminating keyboard part. The new interaction method can be applied to text input method for mobile devices requiring especially small dimension. And this method can be modified to selection and navigation method for wireless internet contents on small screen devices.