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Each software context has its specificities. One specfic type of context is the multi-touch, where two or more touches are recognized by the software at the same time. Still in this context, User eXperience (UX) and Usability are relevant criteria related to multi-touch systems quality, and evaluation technologies are used to assess this quality. But which are these technologies? This is the central question that the Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) seeks to answer. Besides this question, another 18 sub-questions were addressed to find out more about the peculiarities of the technologies and how they can affect the state of the art of evaluating multi-touch systems. This SMS returned 622 papers, which were analyzed using two filters. Finally, 65 papers had their data extracted through the 18 sub-questions. These extractions raised information such as the software used, data collection methods, and aspects evaluated by the technologies. Through these data, we noticed an absence of technologies explicitly built for the multi-touch context. Other gaps were also perceived, such as the need for technologies that jointly assess quantitative and qualitative data; and technologies that focus on jointly evaluating Usability and UX. Perceiving the lack of synthesized content and characteristics about the questionnaires, we also performed a benchmark over the questionnaires identified in the SMS to serve as a future guide when applicators must choose the better technology for their context.

Our research aimed to investigate the potential learning benefits to young children of implementing digital interactive multimodal technologies that provide both visual and haptic experiences in elementary mathematics classrooms. We studied the ways in which fourth-grade students collaboratively create collective strategies for solving mathematical problems utilizing dynamic geometry software with multi-touch interfaces, a combination we call a multi-touch Dynamic Geometry Environment. We examine in-depth two case studies each illustrating how mathematical strategies, collaboration, and socially mediated metacognition emerge in the small groups of children while working on an activity using the Geometer's Sketchpad® on the iPad to make sense of an intuitive idea of covariation. We found that children's interactions with their peers, the interviewer, and the mDGE favored the emergence of varied collaborative behaviors and socially mediated metacognitive processes that fostered the co-construction and development of mathematical strategies over a short period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-computer interaction (HCI) technology plays a critically essential role in the computer-aided design of railway line locations. However, the traditional interactive design with a mouse+keyboard cannot well meet the rapid generation requirements of the railway line during scheme discussion. This research presents a fitting algorithm for the rapid generation of railway lines by using a multi-touch gesture algorithm. The fitting method from free hand-drawing lines to satisfied railway lines is proposed. Then the interactive operation hand gestures are defined and implemented into the railway line location design. The hand-drawing lines generated by defined gestures are automatically fitted with the target horizontal line by using the inflection detection algorithm based on Euclidean Distance (ED). Meanwhile, the vertical line can be fitted by a similar algorithm with an extreme point-to-point (EPP) and chord-to-point distance accumulation (CPDA). Moreover, a real-world example verification is carried out. The multi-touch gesture algorithm is applied for the automatic fitting of the railway line. Compared with the traditional interactive methods, the consumption time of railway line generation by using the multi-touch interactive mode is decreased by about 15%. This research provides fundamental support for rapid scheme discussion of railway line generation based on natural HCI, which is well-matched with modern handheld devices, and the requirements of rapid selection as well as the quick comparison of railway line schemes in the early stage of design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each software context has its specificities. One specfic type of context is the multi-touch, where two or more touches are recognized by the software at the same time. Still in this context, User eXperience (UX) and Usability are relevant criteria related to multi-touch systems quality, and evaluation technologies are used to assess this quality. But which are these technologies? This is the central question that the Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) seeks to answer. Besides this question, another 18 sub-questions were addressed to find out more about the peculiarities of the technologies and how they can affect the state of the art of evaluating multi-touch systems. This SMS returned 622 papers, which were analyzed using two filters. Finally, 65 papers had their data extracted through the 18 sub-questions. These extractions raised information such as the software used, data collection methods, and aspects evaluated by the technologies. Through these data, we noticed an absence of technologies explicitly built for the multi-touch context. Other gaps were also perceived, such as the need for technologies that jointly assess quantitative and qualitative data; and technologies that focus on jointly evaluating Usability and UX. Perceiving the lack of synthesized content and characteristics about the questionnaires, we also performed a benchmark over the questionnaires identified in the SMS to serve as a future guide when applicators must choose the better technology for their context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing articulated objects is challenging because, unlike with static objects, it requires complex decisions to be made regarding the form, parts, rig, poses, and motion. We present a novel 3D sketching system for rapidly authoring concepts of articulated objects for the early stages of design, when designers make such decisions. Compared to existing CAD software, which focuses on slowly but elaborately producing models consisting of precise surfaces and volumes, our system focuses on quickly but roughly producing models consisting of key curves through a small set of coherent pen and multi-touch gestures. We found that professional designers could easily learn and use our system and author compelling concepts in a short time, showing that 3D sketching can be extended to designing articulated objects and is generally applicable in film, animation, game, and product design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Interacting with digital contents in 3D is an essential task in various applications such as modeling packages, gaming, virtual reality, etc. Traditional interfaces using keyboard and mouse or trackball usually require a non-trivial amount of working space as well as a learning process. We present the design of EZ-Manipulator, a new 3D manipulation interface using smartphones that supports mobile, fast, and ambiguity-free interaction with 3D objects. Our system leverages the built-in multi-touch input and gyroscope sensor of smartphones to achieve 9 degrees-of-freedom axis-constrained manipulation and free-form rotation. Using EZ-Manipulator to manipulate objects in 3D is easy. The user merely has to perform intuitive singleor two-finger gestures and rotate the hand-held device to perform manipulations at fine-grained and coarse levels respectively.We further investigate the ambiguity in manipulation introduced by indirect manipulations using a multi-touch interface, and propose a dynamic virtual camera adjustment to effectively resolve the ambiguity. A preliminary study shows that our system has significant lower task completion time compared to conventional use of a keyboard–mouse interface, and provides a positive user experience to both novices and experts.

The touchscreen has a lack of accuracy in discriminating between multi‐touch and single‐touch signals when touch signals are too close to each other. This causes the machine's incorrect expectation of the intended touch coordinates. We propose a novel convolutional neural network (CNN)‐based multi‐touch detection to increase the accuracy for detecting the number of touching points. Additionally, the modified loss function is proposed to train the proposed neural network for the class‐imbalanced dataset. The novel loss function is optimized by considering the number of data according to the class, and then, the detection accuracy is increased compared with the conventional approach. Finally, we compute the coordinates of the touch signal by using the result of CNN. Experimental results show that the detection accuracy of the proposed network with our novel loss function was 93.67%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A $3\times 3$ textile integrated force-sensor array is presented that is based on the cross coupling of optical fibers and provides multi-touch capability. The force sensing relies on cross coupling between two fibers that are aligned orthogonally to each other. The actual coupling is improved by an increased contact area and higher scattering at the fiber crossing. A systematic analysis of different parameters is done for the driving and the sensing fiber, which involves materials, size, fabrication parameters as well as the cross-section shape. The results reveal that the combination of a rather stiff driving fiber and a flexible sensing fiber from elastomer (TPU) lead to the highest sensitivities in the range of 45.5 pW/N. The application of non-circular cross sections can improve the coupling efficiency by directing the side-emitted light better towards the sensing fiber. A trilobal-shaped driving fiber lead to an increase of 5 dBs, whereas the shaping of the sensing fiber improved the efficiency by another 7.5 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ordnance Industry Automation is the property of Editorial Board for Ordnance Industry Automation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the digital era, the paper-based collage and mind-map have been gradually developed into digital forms. This study aims to develop a new digital collage tool called EDOS-Touch for helping novice designers (students) to generate design ideas through the design exploration. The authors propose two characteristics, i.e. intuitive manipulation and immersive experience; both are important to build a better digital collage tool. For evaluating its effectiveness, the authors conducted an experiment to answer two research questions. Eight subjects were selected from five groups of all participants involved; those in session 1 used EDOS-Touch and those in session 2 a paper-based collage. Quantitative results are presented, and significant observation notes and interview comments discussed. The conclusion reached is that EDOS-Touch provides novice designers with appropriate assistance in generating design ideas (like the paper-based collage), but is even better. The authors suggest that the multi-touch interface and big screen size are two important considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A force sensing touchscreen, which detects touch point and touch force simultaneously by sensing a change in electric capacitance, was designed and fabricated. It was made with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) which have better mechanical and chemical characteristics than the indium-tin-oxide transparent electrodes used in most contemporary touchscreen devices. The SWCNTs, with a transmittance of about 85% and electric conductivity of 400 Ω per square; were coated and patterned on glass and polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) film substrates. The constructed force sensing touchscreen has a total size and thickness of 62 mm × 100 mm × 1.4 mm, and is composed of 11 driving line and 19 receiving line channels. The gap between the channels was designed to be 20 µm, taking visibility into consideration, and patterned by a photolithography and plasma etching processes. The mutual capacitance formed by the upper and lower transparent electrodes was initially about 2.8 pF and, on applying a 500 gf force with a 3 mm diameter tip, it showed a 25% capacitance variation. Furthermore, the touchscreen can detect multiple touches and forces simultaneously and is unaffected by touch material characteristics, such as conductance or non-conductance.

We propose a multi-touch authentication algorithm based on minimum risk Bayes decision to improve the recognition rate of multi-touch authentication on the smart phone. Firstly, authentication gesture sequences of each finger are classified by logistic regression of the mean dynamic time warping classifier. Then, based on the Bayes rules, we introduce a loss function to calculate the risk of local decision-making under the minimum risk Bayes decision fusion rules. Finally, we achieve global decisionmaking results according to the minimum risk Bayes decision fusion rules. Experimental results show that the leak alarm rate maintains satisfactory while the false alarm rate is effectively reduced by introducing minimum risk Bayes decision fusion rules into multi-touch authentication, and the overall classification result is good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interacting with digital contents in 3D is an essential task in various applications such as modeling packages, gaming, virtual reality, etc. Traditional interfaces using keyboard and mouse or trackball usually require a non-trivial amount of working space as well as a learning process. We present the design of EZ-Manipulator, a new 3D manipulation interface using smartphones that supports mobile, fast, and ambiguity-free interaction with 3D objects. Our system leverages the built-in multi-touch input and gyroscope sensor of smartphones to achieve 9 degrees-of-freedom axis-constrained manipulation and free-form rotation. Using EZ-Manipulator to manipulate objects in 3D is easy. The user merely has to perform intuitive singleor two-finger gestures and rotate the hand-held device to perform manipulations at fine-grained and coarse levels respectively.We further investigate the ambiguity in manipulation introduced by indirect manipulations using a multi-touch interface, and propose a dynamic virtual camera adjustment to effectively resolve the ambiguity. A preliminary study shows that our system has significant lower task completion time compared to conventional use of a keyboard-mouse interface, and provides a positive user experience to both novices and experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a hazard event strikes, the reachability of affected areas is a significant factor that can determine if the situation becomes a disaster. Decision makers have to react quickly while under stress to tasks that depend on the road network, such as management of relief operations, planning of evacuation routes, or food and first aid distribution. In this paper we present an approach for exploring and validating reachability of remote areas through visualization with an interactive tabletop and tablets. We propose a simple way to combine and visualize data from scientists and communities to provide insights into area reachability, as well as the likely impacts of future hazard events on access routes. Moreover, our interface introduces an approach to assess alternative accessibility options to isolated settlements by helicopter or offroad routes that builds on satellite data and interactive collaborative mapping. This set of visualization and interaction techniques facilitates the formation of risk scenarios for better planning, preparedness and response activities. We developed our research with a case study of landslide threat for an area in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of HMD: Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A capacitive-type touch sensor for detecting the touch position and touch load, simultaneously, is designed and manufactured using transparent electrode material. Generally, a touch sensor senses only the touch position. However, as the touch sensor proposed in this study is designed by separating the touch position and touch load sensing parts, it is possible to recognize the touch load, in addition to the touch position. The touch sensor is mainly composed of a polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) film substrate coated by an indium tin oxide (ITO), an ITO glass substrate, and a transparent elastomer. The ITO, as the transparent electrode, has an approximately 86% light transmittance and a sheet resistance of 30 Ω/square, and is patterned by photo-lithography process. A transparent elastomer, for load recognition, is sandwiched between the two transparent substrates and senses the magnitude of the touch load by detecting the change in capacitance value due to the change in the distance between the upper and lower electrodes, generated by the touch load. The fabricated touch sensor is 183 mm in width and 234 mm in length with a 10 in. touch area. It has 32 transmit lines for signal driving, 47 receive lines for signal detection, and two channels of ground lines. It can detect multi-touch with more than 10 points and sense loads up to 700 gf, simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Force sensor application in the field of consumer devices has garnered increasing attention in recent years, adding a new dimension of control capability to touch displays. We present a capacitive force-sensing (FSC) material which can be patterned to yield a slim matrix sensor 0.1mm thick or thinner. Basic characterization of materials and resulting devices are presented, showing that the technology can be specifically engineered to work with mainstream touch controllers. Through structural models we demonstrate the potential of FSC to enable multi-point force sensing capabilities on modern flexible display systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]