earPod Homepage
Introduction
The
visual
modality has long dominated research in human computer interaction.
However
interest in applications for mobile users, and users with visual
disabilities
is leading to the development of audio-based eyes-free interfaces.
Designing
mobile audio eyes-free interfaces is challenging. Speech is serial and
slow
which can make audio based interaction technique painful to interact
with. In addition, mobile applications are often
used in
multi-task scenarios in dynamic environments where users distribute
physical or
mental resources among multiple, possibly concurrent, tasks. This is in
contrast with the static eyes-free interfaces typically designed for
the visually
impaired where users can operate the device under a stable environment
with
dedicated attention.
earPod Design
Figure 1: Using earPod. (a, b) Sliding the thumb on the circular touchpad allows discovery of menu items; (c) the desired item is selected by lifting the thumb; (d) faster finger motions cause partial playback of audio.
earPod project investigates the design of a common interface component: hierarchical menus, in mobile eyes-free scenarios. Relevant design is carried out for both input and output, and a prototype is developed which is referred to as the earPod.
The
earPod technique
is designed for an auditory device controlled by a circular touchpad
whose output is experienced via a headset, as is found, for example, on
an Apple iPod. Figure 3 shows how the touchpad area is functionally
divided into an inner disc and an outer track called the dial. The dial
is divided evenly into sectors, similar to a Pie or Marking Menu.
Our technique is illustrated in Figure 1. When a user touches the dial, the audio menu responds by saying the name of the menu item located under the finger (Figure 1a). Users may continue to press their finger on the touch surface, or initiate an exploratory gesture on the dial (Figure 1b). Whenever the finger enters a new sector on the dial, playback of the previous menu item is aborted. Boundary crossing is reinforced by a click sound, after which the new menu item is played. Once a desired menu item has been reached, users select it by lifting the operating finger, which is confirmed by a “camera-shutter” sound (Figure 1c). Users can abort item selections by moving their finger to the center of the touchpad and releasing it. If a selected item has submenus, users repeat the above process to drill down the hierarchy, until they reach a desired leaf item. Users can skip items rapidly using fast dialing gestures (Figure 1d). earPod is designed to allow fast expert usage. As users gain knowledge of the menu configuration through practice, they tend to use brief corrective gestures (Figure 1b) instead of large exploratory ones (Figure 1d). Eventually, as users remember the exact locations of desired menu items, they select these items by directly tapping on them.
earPod is not a simple replacement of written words using audible speech. It's designed to be fast and easy to learn. As we know, speech is serial and slow. Using speech for user feedback can tremedously slow down interaction speed. earPod use a number of strategies to overcome these problems.
earPod prototype is evaluated, first against the iPod interface and then against a fuller set of competitive techniques that include dual vs. single modality presentations, audio vs. visual modalities, and absolute vs. relative mappings.
Our first user study indicates that earPod is efficient to use and relatively easy to learn. For static menus of reasonable sizes, earPod is comparable in both speed and accuracy with an iPod-like visual menu selection technique. Although initially slower, earPod outperformed the visual technique within 30 minutes of training (Figure 2).