We demonstrate two-dimensional navigation with velocity control on a single button. Users can vary the speed of the controlled object by rhythm tapping, and can control direction by pressing and tilting, releasing the button once the desired rotation is achieved. Feedback is multisensory. Tactile pulses are being delivered at 30-degree intervals during rotation, simulating the detents of a rotary encoder. Simultaneously, a sonic glissando accompanies rotation, raising or lowering pitch according to the change of direction. Absolute positional feedback is provided visually as well as auditorilly, with an intermittent auditory tone whose pitch conveys vertical position, panned to the left or to the right depending on horizontal position. The rhythmic pace corresponds directly to the on-screen element speed, defined by the tapping interval. Participants will be engaged in a target-following task, thus being able to appreciate the precise speed and direction control of the multisensory navigation experience.

The navigation of two-dimensional spaces by rhythmic patterns on two buttons is investigated. It is shown how direction and speed of a moving object can be controlled with discrete commands consisting of duplets or triplets of taps, whose rate is proportional to one of two orthogonal velocity components. The imparted commands generate polyrhythms and polytempi that can be used to monitor the object movement by perceptual streaming. Tacking back and forth must be used to make progress along certain directions, similarly to sailing a boat upwind. The proposed rhythmic velocity-control technique is tested with a target-following task. Users effectively learn the tapping control actions, and they can keep a relatively small distance from a moving target. They can potentially rely on overlapping auditory rhythmic streams to compensate for temporary deprivation of visual position of the controlled object. The interface is minimal and symmetric, and can be adapted to different sensing and display devices, exploiting the symmetry of the human body and the ability to follow two concurrent rhythmic streams.

A common belief among students is that computing is a boring subject that lacks a connection to the real world. The first class (one 80-minute session) in an introductory computer science course may be an appropriate instance to combat such a belief. Previous studies have used coursewide interventions, e.g., games and physical/tangible devices to improve students’ motivation. However, although other approaches help motivate students, they may lack real-world context or have a high cost of deployment. This article proposes a novel real-world based approach to introduce programming concepts in the first class of the introductory computer science course. This approach, called Protobject based, is applicable to courses with over 100 students, has a low deployment entry barrier, requires low investment, and may be used creatively to implement different experiences. Furthermore, the Protobject-based approach has an equivalent motivational effect—at least in the short-term—to a Game-based approach even if it is entirely focused on the real world. The low requirements of the approach make it especially suitable for an 80-minute first class in an introductory computer science course. The Protobject-based approach has been preliminarily validated and compared to a pure game-based approach with a study with 376 participants, and we present the analysis of motivation questionnaires, a pre-test and post-test, and a homework assignment given to the students. We posit that more research into initiatives such as this one—that can show students how computer science can impact the real world around them—is warranted.

Recent works have explored the concept of movement correlation interfaces, in which moving objects can be selected by matching the movement of the input device to that of the desired object. Previous techniques relied on a single modality (e.g. gaze or mid-air gestures) and specific hardware to issue commands. TraceMatch is a computer vision technique that enables input by movement correlation while abstracting from any particular input modality. The technique relies only on a conventional webcam to enable users to produce matching gestures with any given body parts, even whilst holding objects. We describe an implementation of the technique for acquisition of orbiting targets, evaluate algorithm performance for different target sizes and frequencies, and demonstrate use of the technique for remote control of graphical as well as physical objects with different body parts.

We present Touch&Screen, a wide set of interaction techniques for the remote control of widgets (menu, lists, videos, maps etc.) for large screens through smartphones. After presenting the design of these widgets and the related control interfaces of the smartphone, we evaluated the interaction through two user studies. The first study (48 users) aimed to evaluate the user experience (naturalness, usability, etc.) and spontaneity of use. The second user study (12 users) aimed to evaluate our interaction techniques comparatively with direct touch and a commercial smartphone application designed to control cursors on distant screens. The evaluation results show that Touch&Screen is faster and more natural than existing solutions to control distant screens.