TR2006-001

Fluid DTMouse: Better Mouse Support for Touch-Based Interactions


    •  Esenther, A., Ryall, K., "Fluid DTMouse: Better Mouse Support for Touch-Based Interactions", International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI), May 2006.
      BibTeX TR2006-001 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Esenther2006may,
      • author = {Esenther, A. and Ryall, K.},
      • title = {Fluid DTMouse: Better Mouse Support for Touch-Based Interactions},
      • booktitle = {International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI)},
      • year = 2006,
      • month = may,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2006-001}
      • }
  • Research Area:

    Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract:

Although computer mice have evolved physically (i.e., new form factors, multiple buttons, scroll-wheels), their basic metaphor remains the same: a single-point of interaction, with modifiers used to control the interaction. Many of today's novel input devices, however, do not directly (or easily) map to mouse interactions. For example, when using one's finger(s) or hand directly on a touchable display surface, a simple touch movement could be interpreted as either a mouse-over or a drag, depending on whether the left mouse button is intended to be depressed at the time. But how does one convey the state of the left mouse button with a single touch? And how does one fluidly switchbetween states? The problem is confounded by the lack of precision input when using a single finger as the mouse cursor, since a finger has a much larger footprint than a single pixel cursor hotspot. In this paper we introduce our solution, Fluid DTMouse, which has been used to improve the usability of touch tables with legacy (mouse-based) applications. Our technique is applicable to any direct-touch input device that can detect multiple points of contact. Our solution solves problems of smoothly specifying and switching between modes, addressing issues with the stability of the cursor, and facilitating precision input.

 

  • Related News & Events

    •  NEWS    AVI 2006: 4 publications by Derek Schwenke, Kent Wittenburg, Anthony Vetro, Kathy Ryall and Alan Esenther
      Date: May 23, 2006
      Where: International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI)
      MERL Contact: Anthony Vetro
      Brief
      • The papers "Enabling Interaction with Single User Applications through Speech and Gestures on a Multi-User Tabletop" by Tse, E., Shen, C., Greenberg, S. and Forlines, C., "Table-Centric Interactive Spaces for Real-Time Collaboration" by Wigdor, D., Shen, C., Forlines, C. and Balakrishnan, R., "The Prospects for Unrestricted Speech Input for TV Content Search" by Wittenburg, K., Lanning, T., Schwenke, D., Shubin, H. and Vetro, A. and "Fluid DTMouse: Better Mouse Support for Touch-Based Interactions" by Esenther, A. and Ryall, K. were presented at the International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI).
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