NoseTapping: what else can you do with your nose?

Abstract

Touch-screen interfaces on smart devices became ubiquitous in our everyday lives. In specific contextual situations, capacitive touch interfaces used on current mobile devices are not accessible when, for example, wearing gloves during a cold winter. Although the market has responded by providing capacitive styluses or touchscreen-compatible gloves, these solutions are not widely accepted and appropriate in such particular situations. Using the nose instead of fingers is an easy way to overcome this problem. In this paper, we present in-depth results of a user study on nose-based interaction. The study was complemented by an online survey to elaborate the potential and acceptance of the nose-based interaction style. Based on the insights gained in the study, we identify the main challenges of nose-based interaction and contribute to the state of the art of design principles for this interaction style by adding two new design principles and refining one already existing principle. In addition, we investigated in the emotional effect of nose-based interaction based on the user experiences evolved during the user study.