Skip to main content

Supporting Atomic User Actions on the Table

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Tabletops - Horizontal Interactive Displays

Abstract

One of the biggest obstacles that application developers and designers face is a lack of understanding of how to support basic/atomic user interactions. User actions, such as pointing, selecting, scrolling and menu navigation, are often taken for granted in desktop GUI interactions, but have no equivalent interaction techniques in tabletop systems. In this chapter we present a review of the state-of-the-art in interaction techniques for selecting, pointing, rotating, and scrolling. We, first, identify and classify existing techniques, then summarize user studies that were performed with these techniques, and finally identify and formulate design guidelines based on the solutions found.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Wellner P (1993) Interacting with paper on the DigitalDesk. Communications of the ACM 36(7):87–96, doi: 10.1145/159544.159630

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Arai T, Machii K, Kuzunuki S, Shojima H (1995) InteractiveDESK: A computer-augmented desk which responds to operations on real objects. In: CHI’95: Proceedings of the conference companion on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 141–142, doi: 10.1145/223355.223470

    Google Scholar 

  3. Krüger W, Bohn CA, Fröhlich B, Schüth H, Strauss W, Wesche G (1995) The responsive workbench: A virtual work environment. Computer 28(7):42–48, doi:10.1109/2.391040

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Fitzmaurice GW, Ishii H, Buxton WAS (1995) Bricks: Laying the foundations for graspable user interfaces. In: CHI’95: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York, pp 442–449, doi: 10.1145/223904.223964

    Google Scholar 

  5. Ullmer B, Ishii H (1997) The metaDESK: Models and prototypes for tangible user interfaces. In: UIST’97: Proceedings of the 10th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, ACM Press, New York, pp 223–232, doi: 10.1145/263407.263551

    Google Scholar 

  6. Aliakseyeu D, Irani P, Lucero A, Subramanian S (2008) Multi-flick: An evaluation of flick-based scrolling techniques for pen interfaces. In: CHI’08: Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1689–1698, doi: 10.1145/1357054.1357319

    Google Scholar 

  7. Benko H, Wilson A, Baudisch P (2006) Precise selection techniques for multi-touch screens. In: CHI’06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1263–1272, doi: 10.1145/1124772.1124963

    Google Scholar 

  8. Dietz P, Leigh D (2001) DiamondTouch: A multi-user touch technology. In: UIST’01: Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, ACM Press, New York, pp 219–226, doi: 10.1145/502348.502389

    Google Scholar 

  9. Aliakseyeu D, Martens J-B, Subramanian S, Vroubel M, Wesselink W (2001) Visual interaction platform. In: INTERACT’01: Proceedings of Interact 2001, IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 232–239

    Google Scholar 

  10. Brandl P, Forlines C, Wigdor D, Haller M, Shen C (2008) Combining and measuring the benefits of bimanual pen and direct-touch interaction on horizontal interfaces. In: AVI’08: Proceedings of the working conference on advanced visual interfaces, ACM Press, New York, pp 154–161, doi: 10.1145/1385569.1385595

    Google Scholar 

  11. Rauterberg M, Fjeld M, Krueger H, Bichsel M, Leonhardt U, Meier M (1997) BUILD-IT: A computer vision-based interaction technique for a planning tool. In: Proceedings of the HCI on people and computers XII, Springer-Verlag, London, pp 303–314

    Google Scholar 

  12. Balakrishnan R (2004) “Beating” Fitts’ law: Virtual enhancements for pointing facilitation. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 61(6):857–874, doi: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2004.09.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. MacKenzie IS (1992) Fitts’ law as a research and design tool in human-computer interaction. Human-Computer Interaction 7(1):91–139, doi: 10.1207/s15327051hci0701_3

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Bohan M, Chaparro A (1998) To click or not to click: A comparison of two target-selection methods for HCI. In: CHI’98: Proceedings of the CHI 98 conference summary on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 219–220, doi: 10.1145/286498.286707

    Google Scholar 

  15. Hourcade JP, Berkel TR (2006) Tap or touch? Pen-based selection accuracy for the young and old. In: CHI’06: Extended abstracts of the CHI’ 06 conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 881–886, doi: 10.1145/1125451.1125623

    Google Scholar 

  16. Buxton WAS (1990) A three-state model of graphical input. In: INTERACT’90: Proceedings of the interact ’90, North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, pp 449–456

    Google Scholar 

  17. Potter RL, Weldon LJ, Shneiderman B (1988) Improving the accuracy of touch screens: An experimental evaluation of three strategies. In: CHI’88: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 27–32, doi: 10.1145/57167.57171

    Google Scholar 

  18. MacKenzie IS, Oniszczak A (1998) A comparison of three selection techniques for touchpads. In: CHI’98: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York, pp 336–343, doi: 10.1145/274644.274691

    Google Scholar 

  19. Wu M, Balakrishnan R (2003) Multi-finger and whole hand gestural interaction techniques for multi-user tabletop displays. In: UIST’03: Proceedings of the 16th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology, ACM Press, New York, pp 193–202, doi: 10.1145/964696.964718

    Google Scholar 

  20. Masoodian M, McKoy S, Rogers B (2007) Hands-on sharing: Collaborative document manipulation on a tabletop display using bare hands. In: CHINZ ’07: Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGCHI New Zealand chapter’s international conference on computer-human interaction: Design centered HCI, ACM Press, New York, pp 25–31, doi: 10.1145/1278960.1278964

    Google Scholar 

  21. Esenther A, Ryall K (2006) Fluid DTMouse: Better mouse support for touch-based interactions. In: AVI’06: Proceedings of the working conference on advanced visual interfaces, ACM Press, New York, pp 112–115, doi: 10.1145/1133265.1133289

    Google Scholar 

  22. Rekimoto J (2002) SmartSkin: An infrastructure for freehand manipulation on interactive surfaces. In: CHI’02: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems: Changing our world, changing ourselves, ACM Press, New York, pp 113–120, doi: 10.1145/503376.503397

    Google Scholar 

  23. Vogel D, Baudisch P (2007) Shift: A technique for operating pen-based interfaces using touch. In: CHI’07: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 657–666, doi: 10.1145/1240624.1240727

    Google Scholar 

  24. Wigdor D, Penn G, Ryall K, Esenther A, Shen C (2007) Living with a tabletop: Analysis and observations of long term office use of a multi-touch table. In: Tabeltop’08: Proceedings of the second annual IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems, pp 60–67, doi: 10.1109/TABLETOP.2007.33

    Google Scholar 

  25. Wigdor D, Shen C, Forlines C, Balakrishnan R (2006) Table-centric interactive spaces for real-time collaboration. In: AVI’06: Proceedings of the working conference on advanced visual interfaces, ACM Press, New York, pp 103–107, doi: 10.1145/1133265.1133286

    Google Scholar 

  26. Olwal A, Feiner S, Heyman S (2008) Rubbing and tapping for precise and rapid selection on touch-screen displays. In: CHI’08: Proceedings of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 295–304, doi: 10.1145/1357054.1357105

    Google Scholar 

  27. Ren X, Moriya S (2000) Improving selection performance on pen-based systems: A study of pen-based interaction for selection tasks. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 7 (3): 384–416, doi: 10.1145/355324.355328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Apitz G, Guimbretière F (2004) CrossY: A crossing-based drawing application. In: UIST’04: Proceedings of the 17th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology, ACM Press, New York, pp 3–12, doi: 10.1145/1029632.1029635

    Google Scholar 

  29. Aliakseyeu D, Martens JB, Rauterberg M (2006). A computer support tool for the early stages of architectural design. Interacting with Computers 18(4):528–555, doi: 10.1016/j.intcom.2005.11.010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Nacenta M, Gutwin C, Aliakseyeu D, Subramanian S (2009) There and back again: Cross-display object movement in multi-display environments. Human-Computer Interaction 24(1&2):170–229, doi: 10.1080/07370020902819882

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Geißler J (1998) Shuffle, throw or take it! Working efficiently with an interactive wall. In: CHI’98: Proceedings of the CHI 98 conference summary on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 265–266, doi: 10.1145/286498.286745

    Google Scholar 

  32. Baudisch P, Cutrell E, Robbins D, Czerwinski M, Tandler P, Bederson B, Zierlinger A (2003) Drag-and-pop and Drag-and-pick: Techniques for accessing remote screen content on touch and pen-operated systems. In: INTERACT’03: Proceedings of the Interact’03, Springer, pp 57–64

    Google Scholar 

  33. Albinsson P, Zhai S (2003) High precision touch screen interaction. In: CHI’03: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 105–112, doi: 10.1145/642611.642631

    Google Scholar 

  34. Nacenta M, Sallam S, Champoux B, Subramanian S and Gutwin C (2006) Perspective cursor: Perspective-based interaction for multi-display environments. In: CHI’06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 289–298, doi: 10.1145/1124772.1124817

    Google Scholar 

  35. Collomb M, Hascoët M, Baudisch P, Lee B (2005) Improving drag-and-drop on wall-size displays. In: GI’05: Proceedings of the graphics interface 2005, Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society, pp 25–32

    Google Scholar 

  36. Nacenta MA, Aliakseyeu D, Subramanian S, Gutwin C (2005) A comparison of techniques for multi-display reaching. In: CHI’05: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 371–380, doi: 10.1145/1054972.1055024

    Google Scholar 

  37. Nacenta MA, Pinelle D, Stuckel D, Gutwin C (2007) The effects of interaction technique on coordination in tabletop groupware. In: GI’07: Proceedings of the graphics interface 2007, ACM Press, New York, pp 191–198, doi: 10.1145/1268517.1268550

    Google Scholar 

  38. Ha V, Inkpen K, Mandryk R, Whalen T (2006) Direct intentions: The effects of input devices on collaboration around tabletop display. In: Tabletop’06: Proceedings of the first IEEE international workshop on horizontal interactive human-computer systems, IEEE, pp 177–184, doi: 10.1109/TABLETOP.2006.10

    Google Scholar 

  39. Rekimoto J (1997) Pick-and-drop: A direct manipulation technique for multiple computer environments. In: UIST’97: Proceedings of the 10th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology, ACM Press, New York, pp 31–39, doi: 10.1145/263407.263505

    Google Scholar 

  40. Matejka J, Grossman T, Lo J, Fitzmaurice GW (2009) The design and evaluation of multi-finger mouse emulation techniques. In: CHI’07: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1073–1082, doi: 10.1145/1518701.1518865

    Google Scholar 

  41. Grossman T, Balakrishnan R (2005) The bubble cursor: Enhancing target acquisition by dynamic resizing of the cursor’s activation area. In: CHI’05: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 281–290, doi: 10.1145/1054972.1055012

    Google Scholar 

  42. Worden A, Walker N, Bharat K, Hudson S (1997) Making computers easier for older adults to use: Area cursors and sticky icons. In: CHI’97: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 266–271, doi: 10.1145/258549.258724

    Google Scholar 

  43. Chapuis O, Labrune J-B, Pietriga E (2009) DynaSpot: Speed-dependent area cursor. In: CHI’09: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1391–1400, doi: 10.1145/1518701.1518911

    Google Scholar 

  44. Aliakseyeu D, Nacenta MA, Subramanian S, Gutwin C (2006) Bubble radar: Efficient pen-based interaction. In: AVI’06: Proceedings of the working conference on advanced visual interfaces, ACM Press, New York, pp 19–26, doi: 10.1145/1133265.1133271

    Google Scholar 

  45. Hascoët M (2003) Throwing models for large displays. In: Proceedings of the British HCI 2003, British HCI Group, pp 73–77

    Google Scholar 

  46. Moyle M, Cockburn A (2002) Analyzing mouse and pen flick gestures. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI-NZ, pp 266–267

    Google Scholar 

  47. Reetz A, Gutwin C, Stach T, Nacenta MA, Subramanian S (2006) Superflick: A natural and efficient technique for long-distance object placement on digital tables. In: GI’06: Proceedings of the graphics interface 2006, Canadian Information Processing Society,pp 163–170

    Google Scholar 

  48. Forlines C, Vogel D, Balakrishnan R (2006) HybridPointing: Fluid switching between absolute and relative pointing with a direct input device. In: UIST’06: Proceedings of the 19th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology, ACM Press, New York, pp 211–220, doi: 10.1145/1166253.1166286

    Google Scholar 

  49. Kruger R, Carpendale S, Scott SD, Greenberg S (2003) How people use orientation on tables: Comprehension, coordination and communication. In: CSCW’03: Proceedings of the 2003 international ACM SIGGROUP conference on supporting group work, ACM Press, New York, pp 369–378, doi: 10.1145/958160.958219

    Google Scholar 

  50. Yanqing W, Christine LM, Valerie AS, Kellogg SB (1998) The structure of object transportation and orientation in human-computer interaction. In: CHI’98: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York, pp 312–319, doi: 10.1145/274644.274688

    Google Scholar 

  51. Jacob R, Sibert LE, McFarlane DC, Mullen J (1994) Integrality and separability of input devices. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 1(1):3–26, doi: 10.1145/174630.174631

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Kruger R, Carpendale S (2003) Exploring orientation on a table display. Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary

    Google Scholar 

  53. Liu J, Pinelle D, Sallam S, Subramanian S, Gutwin C (2006) TNT: Improved rotation and translation on digital tables. In: GI’06: Proceedings of the graphics interface, Canadian Information Processing Society, pp 25–32

    Google Scholar 

  54. Shen C, Frédéric DV, Forlines C, Ringel M (2004) DiamondSpin: An extensible toolkit for around-the-table interaction. In: CHI’04: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 167–174, doi: 10.1145/985692.985714

    Google Scholar 

  55. Streitz NA, Geißler J, Holmer T, Konomi S, Müller-Tomfelde C, Reischl W, Rexroth P, Seitz P, Steinmetz R (1999) i-LAND: An interactive landscape for creativity and innovation. In: CHI’99: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 120–127, doi: 10.1145/302979.303010

    Google Scholar 

  56. Tandler P, Prante T, Müller-Tomfelde C, Streitz N, Steinmetz R (2001) Connectables: Dynamic coupling of displays for the flexible creation of shared workspaces. In: UIST’01: Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology, ACM Press, New York, pp 11–20, doi: 10.1145/502348.502351

    Google Scholar 

  57. Kruger R, Carpendale S, Scott S, Tang A (2005) Fluid integration of rotation and translation. In: CHI’05: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 601–610, doi: 10.1145/1054972.1055055

    Google Scholar 

  58. Pinelle D, Dyck J, Gutwin C, Stach T (2006) Cutouts: Multiple views for tabletop groupware. HCI-TR-06-04, Computer Science Department, University of Saskatchewan

    Google Scholar 

  59. Zhai S, Smith BA, Selker T (1997) Improving browsing performance: A study of four input devices for scrolling and pointing tasks. In: Proceedings of the IFIP TC13 international conference on human-computer interaction, IFIP conference proceedings, vol 96. Chapman & Hall Ltd., London, pp 286–293

    Google Scholar 

  60. Andersen TH (2005) A simple movement time model for scrolling. In: CHI’05: Extended abstracts of the CHI ’05 conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1180–1183, doi: 10.1145/1056808.1056871

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  61. Cockburn A, Gutwin C, Alexander J (2006) Faster document navigation with space-filling thumbnails. In: CHI’06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1–10, doi: 10.1145/1124772.1124774

    Google Scholar 

  62. Hinckley K, Cutrell E, Bathiche S, Muss T (2002) Quantitative analysis of scrolling techniques. In: CHI’02: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 65–72, doi: 10.1145/503376.503389

    Google Scholar 

  63. Cockburn A, Savage J, Wallace A (2005) Tuning and testing scrolling interfaces that automatically zoom. In: CHI’05: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 71–80, doi: 10.1145/1054972.1054983

    Google Scholar 

  64. Kaptelinin V, Mäntylä T, Åström J (2002) Transient visual cues for scrolling: An empirical study. In: CHI’02: Extended abstracts of the CHI ’02 conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 620–621, doi: 10.1145/506443.506513

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  65. Klein C, Bederson BB (2005) Benefits of animated scrolling. In: CHI’05: Extended abstracts of the CHI ’05 conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1965–1968, doi: 10.1145/1056808.1057068

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  66. Moscovich T, Hughes JF (2004) Navigating documents with the virtual scroll ring. In: UIST’04: Proceedings of the 17th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology, ACM Press, New York, pp 57–60, doi: 10.1145/1029632.1029642

    Google Scholar 

  67. Smith GM, Schraefel MC (2004) The radial scroll tool: Scrolling support for stylus- or touch-based document navigation. In: UIST’04: Proceedings of the 17th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology, ACM Press, New York, pp 53–56, doi: 10.1145/1029632.1029641

    Google Scholar 

  68. Evans KB, Tanner PP, Wein M (1981) Tablet-based valuators that provide one, two, or three degrees of freedom. ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics 15(3):91–97, doi: 10.1145/965161.806794

    Article  Google Scholar 

  69. Smith G, Schraefel MC, Baudisch P (2005) Curve dial: Eyes-free parameter entry for GUIs. In: CHI’05: Extended abstracts of the CHI ’05 conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM Press, New York, pp 1146–1147, doi: 10.1145/1056808.1056855

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dzmitry Aliakseyeu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag London

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Aliakseyeu, D., Subramanian, S., Alexander, J. (2010). Supporting Atomic User Actions on the Table. In: Müller-Tomfelde, C. (eds) Tabletops - Horizontal Interactive Displays. Human-Computer Interaction Series. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-113-4_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-113-4_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84996-112-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84996-113-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics