Study on gestural interaction with a 3D audio display

The study reported here investigates the design and evaluation of a gesture-controlled, spatially-arranged auditory user interface for a mobile computer. Such an interface may provide a solution to the problem of limited screen space in handheld devices and lead to an effective interface for mobile/eyes-free computing. To better understand how we might design such an interface, our study compared three potential interaction techniques: head nodding, pointing with a finger and pointing on a touch tablet to select an item in exocentric 3D audio space. The effects of sound direction and interaction technique on the browsing and selection process were analyzed. An estimate of the size of the minimum selection area that would allow efficient 3D sound selection is provided for each interaction technique. Browsing using the touch screen was found to be more accurate than the other two techniques, but participants found it significantly harder to use