Interactions Under the Desk: A Characterisation of Foot Movements for Input in a Seated Position

Eduardo Velloso, Jason Alexander, Andreas Bulling, Hans Gellersen

Proc. IFIP TC13 Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT), pp. 384-401, 2015.

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Abstract

This paper takes a bottom-up approach to characterising foot movements as input for users seated at computing systems. We conducted four user studies to characterise various aspects of foot-based interaction. First, we built unconstrained foot pointing performance models for 16 participants in a seated desktop setting using 1D and 2D ISO 9241-9-compliant Fitts’s Law tasks. Second, we evaluated the effect of the foot and direction in one-direction tasks, finding no effect of the foot used, but a significant effect of the direction in which targets are distributed. Third, we compared the use of one foot against two feet to control two independent variables, finding that while one foot is better suited for tasks with a spatial representation that matches its movement, there is little difference between the two feet techniques when it does not. Fourth, we analysed the overhead caused by introducing a feet-controlled variable in a mouse-based task, finding the feet to be comparable to the scroll wheel. The results of our studies show the feet are an effective method of enhancing our interaction with desktop systems; we use our findings to inform a series of design guidelines for such systems.

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