Counting on your fingertips: an exploration and analysis of actions in the Rich Touch space

Abstract

Although multi-touch technology and horizontal interactive surfaces have been around for a decade now, there is limited understanding of how users use the Rich Touch space and multiple fingers to manipulate objects on a table. In this paper, we describe the findings and insights from an observational study on how users manipulate photographs on a physical table surface. Through a detailed video analysis based on images captured from four distinct cameras we investigate the various actions users perform, and various aspects of these actions, such as the number of fingers, the space of action, and handedness. Our investigation shows that user interactions can be described in terms of a small set of actions, and there are insightful ways in which hands are used, and number of finger used to carry out these actions. These insights may in turn be used to inform the design of future interactive surfaces, and improve the accuracy of interpreting these actions.