Wearable computers allow users the freedom to work in any environment including hazardous environments that may require protective clothing. Past research has shown that protective clothing interferes with manual materials handling tasks, medical tasks, and manual dexterity tasks. However, little information exists regarding how protective clothing affects task performance with wearable input devices. As a result, a study was conducted to address this issue and offer recommendations to enhance the compatibility of chemical protective clothing and wearable input devices. Sixteen active-duty soldiers performed a text-entry task with a wearable mouse and touch pad, while bare handed, wearing 7-mil, 14-mil, and 25-mil chemical protective gloves, wearing a respirator alone, and wearing the respirator and each of three gloves. Upon completion of the experiment, participants rated task difficulty, confidence using the input device, and input device preference. Task completion times were 9% slower with the 25-mil glove than the 7-mil glove. Text entry was not perceived as difficult when bare handed, or wearing the 7-mil and 14-mil gloves, suggesting that thin chemical protective gloves (i.e. 7-mil and 14-mil) are more suitable than thicker gloves for use with wearable input devices. When using the touch pad, task completion times were 17% faster than when using the mouse. Subjective ratings of difficulty, confidence, and preference provide strong support for the use of a touch pad input device rather than a mouse. / Master of Science

Context. Virtual reality is getting closer and closer to being realized with new technologies emerging. This will lead to new ways to experience interactive worlds such as games. In order to keep the highest immersion possible new ways of interaction are needed. Objectives. In this thesis a control method using motion tracking devices such as the PlayStation Move and the Microsoft Kinect is examined as a method of interaction. This is then compared to the use of a gamepad in a prototype first person puzzle game without a virtual reality device. The aim is to discover how it affects the experience in terms of ease of use, immersion and fun factor as well as how it affects the efficiency of the player when completing the same in-game tasks. With this information it’s hoped to get an indication of how viable motion controls can be in a first person game and as a theoretical interaction method for virtual reality. Methods. To compare the control methods user studies are conducted with eight participants who play the prototype game using the two control methods and complete test chambers where their effectiveness is recorded. They are then interviewed to learn what they thought about the control methods and the experience. Results. Results consisting of time and points from the test chambers and answers from the interviews are compiled and analyzed. Conclusions. Analyzing the results of the user studies it is concluded that using motion controls rather than a traditional gamepad decreases the effectiveness of completing in-game tasks. There is an indication that motion controls increases the fun factor and immersion of the experience overall. The motion controls examined needs some getting used to and higher precision in order to be as effective as a gamepad but developing motion controlled games with the limitations in mind can give benefits such as higher immersion and fun factor.

Since the introduction of graphical user interfaces (GUI), input control devices have become an integral part of desktop computing. When interfacing with GUIs, these input control devices have become the human's primary means of communicating with the computer. Although there have been a number of experiments conducted on pointing devices for desktop machine, there is little research on pointing devices for wearable computer technology. This is surprising because pointing devices are a major component of a wearable computer system, allowing the wearer to select and manipulate objects on the screen. The design of these pointing devices will have a major impact on the ease with which the operator can interact with information being displayed (Card, English, and Burr, 1978). As a result, this research is the first in a series to investigate design considerations for pointing devices and visual displays that will support wearable computer users. Twenty soldiers participated in an experiment using target acquisition software with five pointing devices and two visual displays. The findings of the research strongly support the use of a relative mode-pointing device with rotational characteristics (i.e. trackball or thumbwheel) over other designs. Furthermore, the results also suggest that there is little difference between pointing devices operated with the thumb and index finger for target acquisition tasks. This study has also showed that there were little differences in pointing and homing time for pointing devices across the two visual displays. Finally, the study demonstrated that the Fitts' law model could be applied to hand-operated pointing devices for wearable computers. This is important because it allows the future development of pointing devices to be compared with the devices tested in this research using the Fitts' Law Index of Performance calculations. / Master of Science

This paper deals with the phenomena of spatial visualization and interaction of different ways. Thesis definition of interactivity and individual specifications of different technologies. In this work the terms empirically verified. Practical part is trying to find specifics requirements for interaction in different types of spatial visualization.

[pt] As interfaces pós-WIMP (Windows, Icon, Menu and Pointer) estão trazendo novas modalidades de interação e, consequentemente, novos dispositivos de entrada e saída. Boa parte destas novas interfaces ainda estão amadurecendo questões relacionadas a uma defini¸cão mais clara de um domínio de aplicação e um arranjo tecnológico adequado para isto. O estudo da relação das propriedades dos dispositivos de interação e a influência destas propriedades na realização das tarefas 3D (navegação, manipulação e seleção) constitui um dos fatores para identificação de arranjos mais propícios para execução dessas tarefas. Entretanto, em um âmbito mais globógica pode vir a ser um desafio, pois gera a necessidade da criação de múltiplos ambientes de interação, bem como a transição entre os mesmos. Estas transições são importantes, pois podem tanto orientar como desorientar o usuário durante a realização de uma tarefa. Assim, a presente tese tem por objetivo propor um arranjo tecnológico que, além de buscar integrar as vantagens de ambientes de interação distintos, visa explorar as interações transacionais entre eles, investigando as propriedades de design (congruência dimensional e propriedades de continuidade) durante a realização de uma tarefa de anotação 3D. Para atingir tal objetivo foi desenvolvido um ambiente semiimersivo composto de 3 ambientes de interação através de uma composição de dispositivos de interação contemplando as tarefas de edição textual (2D), navegação e manipulação (3D). Considerando que a tarefa de anotação 3D propicia a transição entre os ambientes interativos, um estudo exploratório foi realizado com usuários para investigar o comportamento da interação durante essas transições, identificando a influência das propriedades de design discutidas nesse trabalho. / [en] The post-WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menu and Pointer) user interfaces are bringing new interaction modalities and the use of new input and output devices. Many of these new interfaces are not yet mature and issues related with a clear definition of an application context and technological requirements are still under investigation. The study of the relationship of the properties of interaction devices and their influence on the performance of 3D tasks (navigation, manipulation, and selection) is an important factor to identify adequate setups for carrying out these tasks. However, in a broader context, each task can be decomposed into sub-tasks which technological demands can be a challenge, since it requires multiple interaction environments, as well as transitions between them. These transitions are relevant because they can either orient or disorient the user during the overall task execution. Thus, this thesis aims to propose a technological setup (a set of interaction devices) to integrate the advantages of different functional environments. The transitional interactions between them are explored by investigating the design properties (dimensional congruency and properties of continuity) during the 3D annotation task execution. In order to achieve such a goal, a semi-immersive environment composed of 3 functional environments was developed. That composition includes a set of devices enabling the tasks of text edition (2D), navigation and manipulation (3D). Assuming that 3D annotation forces transitions between the integrated functional spaces, an exploratory study was conducted with users to investigate the behavior of interaction during these transitions by identifying the influence of the design properties discussed in this work.

I denna uppsats jämförs designförslag för visuell korrigerande feedback via projektor i hemmatränings miljö för att se vilken design och vilka design kombinationer som skulle vara användbart och tydligast att förstå för en användare. I och med covid 19 har det lett till att det är mer aktuellt att träna hemifrån istället för på gym för att minska smittrisken. Men i och med att det ofta inte finns samma stödjande verktyg hemma som på gym (ex. speglar och instruktörer) så kan det leda till att övningar utförs fel och kan leda till skador. Tidigt inne i utforskandet av digitala verktyg för hemmaträning kunde man se en kunskapslucka. Forskning och förslag finns runt området men få verktyg för just hemmaträning. Genom att använda tidigare forskning och tidigare kurslitteratur som bas till designförslagen så skapades det tre olika designförslag. De förslagen användes i kvalitativa intervjuer för att bedöma och kritisera de förslagen som presenterades. Efter intervjuerna evaluerades designförslagen för att landa i ett användbart och tydligt designförslag av visuell korrigerande feedback via projektor. / In this paper, design for visual corrective feedback through projection in at-home-exercising environments is compared to see what design and what design combinations would be usable and most understandable. With the Covid 19 pandemic it has become more actual to start exercising from home instead of going to gyms and increase the infection risk of the virus. However, with most homes not having all the helpful tools that the gyms might have (eg. mirrors and instructors), leads to practitioners not exercising the correct way which in turn might lead to the practitioners receiving injuries rather than the desired results. Early on in the research on digital tools for at home exercising, a knowledge gap came to view. Research and drafts do exist but solutions for at home exercising were rare to nonexistent. With the help of previous research and course literature as a base for design, three proposals were made. Those proposals were used in qualitative interviews to judge and critique the presented proposals. After the interviews, the presented design proposals were reevaluated to give a usable and understandable design proposal of visual corrective feedback through projection.