Using gesture, gaze, and combination input schemes as alternatives to the computer mouse

Abstract

Novel input devices can increase the bandwidth between users and their devices. Traditional desktop computing uses windows, icons, menus, and pointers - an interface built for the computer mouse and very effective for pointing-and-clicking. Alternative devices provide a variety of interactions including touch- free, gesture-based input and gaze-tracking to determine the user's on-screen gaze location, but these input channels are not well-suited to a point-and-click interface. This study evaluates five new schemes, some multi-modal. These experimental schemes perform worse than mouse-based input for a picture sorting task, and motion-based gesture control creates more errors. Some gaze-based input has simitar performance to the mouse while not creating additional workload.