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 enables 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 that are easy, intuitive, and efficient for interacting with small wearable devices.
Xing-Dong Yang is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College, USA. Xing-Dong completed his Bachelor of Computer Science in 2005 from the University of Manitoba, Canada. He earned his Master of Computing Science with a specialization in Haptic Interfaces in 2008 from the University of Alberta, Canada and his Doctorate in Computing Science with a specialization in Human-Computer Interaction in 2013 from the same university. During his graduate work he was a research intern at Autodesk Research in Toronto and Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing. His dissertation work was awarded the 2013 Bill Buxton Best Canadian HCI Dissertation Award, given annually for the best doctoral dissertation completed at a Canadian university in the field of human-computer interaction. He has over forty publications in top-tier venues in HCI, including the ACM Conference on Human Factors and Systems (ACM CHI) and the ACM Conference on User Interfaces and Technology (ACM UIST). His work has also been recognized through best paper nominations at ACM CHI 2018, 2016, 2010 and ACM MobileHCI 2009, as well as featured in public press through Discovery News, NBC, and New Scientist. Xing-Dong’s work is currently funded by Microsoft and NSF.