Using the user's point of view for interaction on mobile devices

Abstract

We study interaction modalities for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) that rely on a camera-based head tracking. This technique defines new possibilities for input and output interaction. For output, by computing the position of the device according to the user's head, it is for example possible to realistically control the viewpoint on a 3D scene (Head-Coupled Perspective, HCP). This technique improves the output interaction bandwidth by enhancing the depth perception and by allowing the visualization of large workspaces (virtual window). For input, head movement can be used as a means of interacting with a mobile device. Moreover such an input modality does not require any additional sensor except the built-in front-facing camera. In this paper, we classify the interaction possibilities offered by head tracking on smartphones and tablets. We then focus on the output interaction by introducing several applications of HCP on both smartphones and tablets and by presenting the results of a qualitative user experiment.