A Left-Hand Advantage: Motor Asymmetry in Touchless Input

Abstract

Touchless gesture is a common input type when interacting with large displays or virtual and augmented reality applications. In touchless input, users may alternate between hands or use bimanual gestures. But touchless performance in nondominant hands is little explored---even though cognitive science and neuroscience studies show cerebral hemispheric specialization causes performance differences between dominant and nondominant hands in lateralized individuals. Drawing on theories that account for between-hand differences in rapid-aimed movements, we characterize motor asymmetry in touchless input. Results from a controlled study (n = 20, right-handed) show freehand touchless input produces significantly smaller between-hand performance differences than a mouse in pointing and dragging. We briefly discuss the HCI implications of motor asymmetry in an input type.