Interaction Techniques on Constrained Interfaces of Wearable Computing

PhD Thesis Proposal Defence


Title: "Interaction Techniques on Constrained Interfaces of Wearable 
Computing"

by

Mr. Lik Hang LEE


Abstract:

Wearable computers have seen a recent resurgence in interest and 
popularity in which smartglasses and smartwatches are poised to impact the 
way we play and work. Today, consumer applications of these wearable 
computers are focused on fitness tracking, message notifications, gaming 
and entertainment. Under several key constraints on wearable computers 
such as miniature-sized touch interface, small-sized screen real estate, 
low computational resource and limited battery life, existing input 
techniques designed for desktop computers and smartphones are obsolete and 
incompatible with the mobile scenarios. The cumbersome and difficult 
interaction with the wearable computers has become a hurdle to their wider 
application as we have seen in nowadays smartphones. Therefore, there is 
an unmet demand for interaction techniques particularly designed for 
wearable computers.

In this thesis proposal, we present several novel interaction techniques 
to enhance the object manipulation and text entry in the constrained 
environment. We thoroughly consider the key constraints on wearable 
computers and explore multiple modalities whether the users have accepted. 
Our first study proposes a pointing technique for manipulation of digital 
objects in computing resource constrained augmented reality smartglasses, 
which improves the user operations by 46%. In the next study, we 
investigate two text entry interfaces on AR headset, knowing that the 
small-scale screen real estate should be reserved for user interaction 
with digital objects overlaying on physical surroundings. An 1-line 
invisibly layout is proposed, and remarkably only occupies 13.14% of the 
screen real estate at the edge region, which is 62.80% smaller than the 
default keyboard layout. Finally, we contribute to a force-assisted text 
entry technique for the constrain-sized touchscreen on smartwatches. By 
leveraging the force augmentation on touchscreen, we propose a trimetric 
optimized ambiguous keyboard as small as a one cent USD (19.5mm2) and 
explore the force disambiguation technique on smartwatches.


Date:			Thursday, 25 April 2019

Time:                  	11:00am - 1:00pm

Venue:                  Room 5560
                         (lifts 27/28)

Committee Members:	Dr. Pan Hui (Supervisor)
 			Prof. Gary Chan (Chairperson)
 			Dr. Xiaojuan Ma
 			Prof. Chiew-Lan Tai


**** ALL are Welcome ****