Wearable Interactions Using Touch without a Touchscreen

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The ubiquitous touchscreen has become the primary mechanism with which users interact

with small personal computing devices. While there is a trend showing that personal

computing devices may become smaller and smaller, a primary constraint on device

miniaturization is the user interface (e.g. touchscreen). Screens need to be large enough to

be seen, and keyboards need enough physical space to facilitate typing. Arbitrary hardware

miniaturization may lead to devices that are not usable. In this talk, I will motivate

and present two sensing techniques that enable touch as an input mechanism on

wearable devices without the need of a touchscreen. I will also present a haptic

technique that enables touch as an output mechanism to create a unique mixed

reality experience for games and videos on smartwatches. The long-term goal of this

research is to develop interaction modalities that are easy, intuitive, and efficient for

interacting with small wearable devices.