- PocketNavigator: Studying Tactile Navigation Systems In-Situ
- Pielot, Martin, Benjamin Poppinga, Wilko Heuten, and Susanne Boll. (2012). PocketNavigator: Studying Tactile Navigation Systems In-Situ. Proceedings of the 2012 ACM annual conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2012), 3131-3139.
- Author Biographies:
- Martin Pielot is working as a potential PhD student with the Institute for Information Technology in Oldenburg, Germany. He currently works in the Intelligent User group. His research interests include usage of mobile and ubiquitous devices on the move with a focus on situationally induced impairments.
- Benjamin Poppinga is a research associate in the Human Machine Interaction group. His reserach interests include health and intelligent user interfaces and exploring unknown environments. His PhD advisor is Susanne Boll.
- Wilko Heuten works in the Human Machine Interaction group at the Institute for Information Technology. His research interests include intelligent user interface for digital life and well being, mobile interaction, and ambient displays. He has multiple publications in CHI and his position at the university is Gruppenleiter.
- Susanne Boll is the professor for Media Informatics and Multimedia Systems in the computer science department at the University of Oldenburg. She is on the executive board of OFFIS-Institute for Information Technology. Her research interests include field of semantic retrieval of digital media, context-aware and location-based mobile systems, and intelligent user interfaces.
The goal of this research was to create software that is able to aid users who are accessing maps on their smartphone. Typically, problems arise when users are looking down at their phone for directions, but not paying attention to the world around them. The aim of this research is to co-exist with current location-based applications in order to create an efficient and easy to use Google Map-like application.
The researchers published a free app on the Android market in order to encourage user usage. Since the research focuses on pedestrian use, the audio supplied with vehicle GPS is not synonymous with this research since pedestrians typically don't want audio or Google Maps has a hard time determining distances when less than 10 meters. The user interface appears very similar to Google Maps, but has a small compass like figure in the lower right hand corner of the smartphone screen. This image is displayed below.
The compass above dictates which direction the user should move in. Each bar represents a vibrate, and the length of the bar indicates the length of the vibrate. This methodology allows users to know where to walk without looking down at their phone. An additional feature is that when users are standing still, they can use the compass as a wind like apparatus which will successfully point the pedestrian in the right direction.
While recording the experiment, the researchers collected data over identifying information, status information, sensor information, route information, and usage information. The data collected last over a year and a half to effectively evaluate the results properly. Although the researchers examined a plethora of data, their overlying goal was to analyze the amount of time users saved looking at their phone to assessing the environment. The tactile feedback solution presented significantly reduced user distraction. In fact, users looked at their phone almost ten times less than without the software. The evaluation section below will delve into the data that was collected and analyzed even further.
Related work not referenced in the paper:
1) "The Use of Tactile Navigation Displays for the Reduction of Disorientation in Maritime Environments" by Dobbins and Samways
2) "Tactile Displays For Enhanced Performance And Safety" by Dobbins and Castle
3) "The Haptic Steering Wheel: Vibro-tactile basedNavigation for the Driving Environment" by Hwang and Ryu
4) "Summary of Tactile User Interfaces Techniques and Systems" by Spirkovska
5) "Enhancing Navigation Information with Tactile Output Embedded into the Steering Wheel" by Kern, Marshall, Hornecker, Rogers, and Smith
6) "The Design of a Segway AR-Tactile Navigation System" by Li, Mahnkopf, and Kobbelt
7) "Tactile Guidance for Land Navigation" by Elliott, Redden, Pettitt, Carstens, Jan van Erp, and Duistermaat
8) "Development of Tactile and Haptic Systems for U.S. Infantry Navigation and Communication" by Elliott, Schmeisser and Redden
9) "Comparison between audio and tactile systems for delivering simple navigational information to visually impaired pedestrians" by Gustafson-Pearce, Billett, and Cecelja
10) "Tactile Representation of Landmark Types for Pedestrian Navigation: User Survey and Experimental Evaluation" by Srikulwong and O'Neill
Overall, the related works all pose novel new additions to the way in which humans utilize tactile communication. It becomes apparent that the use of tactile navigation opens up a new prolific field of study. However, the main differentiation of this research is use of tactile navigation for personal smartphone use. While other related work focuses on new innovative ways to commute more safely in industrial environments, this research specifically concentrates on everyday usage in the modern world to avoid unnecessary conflict. For example, the related work deal with tactile approaches apply texture and distinct shapes to help airplane pilots and the visually blind while the researchers focus on vibration techniques of the cell phone which involvement movement to communication non-verbally.
Evaluation:
The researchers did a thorough job of analyzing the results and data that they received from the experiment. Overall, they used as much quantifiable data as possible through over 34 million snap shots of the phone in action. Some of which includes looking at acceptable walks by pedestrians, trip characteristics, tactile feedback usage, amount of touch screen interaction, amount of time looking at display, and finally, the same data when the display was turned off. In accordance, over three hundred routes were analyzed with an average walking time of 7.8 min after filtering. Thus, the researchers were able to effectively conclude that this application reduced the amount of time users spent looking at their screen when walking in a foreign environment.
On another aspect, the subjective nature of this application was assessed through user comments and feedback. The feedback was open ended with assessing how the user felt about the device, rather than relying on specific survey questions. Overall, the users felt that the application had potential to increase environmental awareness, but on a negative aspect, the application did drain the battery rather fast. This could possible indicate that a hybrid solution of battery life and tactile feedback would accumulate even more users to protect themselves from inherent dangers.
All in all, the researchers did a positive job of using unbiased quantified data in conjunction with biased and subjective data. From this, they were able to infer some results, while detailing to the reader the methodologies that they used. Furthermore, the researchers noted the limitations in their application. This implies that they did analyze it from all directions.
Discussion:
All in all, this work posed an interesting new approach to pedestrian traveling. Although the idea was novel, it appears that the implementation of this research needs some additional work. For instance, most pedestrians using this application did not use it in the way the researchers intended. Although the researchers wanted an experiment free of outside nudging, the application itself caused users to ignore the tactile addition, for the most part. However, continuation on top of this work could lead to a whole new perception of pedestrian navigation.
The evaluation was extremely solid. The most benevolent aspect of the evaluation was the fact that the researchers did note their downfalls and limitations, instead of trying to cover them up. Furthermore, I would suggest to the researchers that the idea of tactile navigation is grand. But, then manner in which the system was approached proved problematic. My advice would be to create an additional iPhone accessory with increased vibration power, and an external battery to prevent some of the user complaints at the end of the survey. Overall, it was an insightful and interesting piece of work.
The researchers did a thorough job of analyzing the results and data that they received from the experiment. Overall, they used as much quantifiable data as possible through over 34 million snap shots of the phone in action. Some of which includes looking at acceptable walks by pedestrians, trip characteristics, tactile feedback usage, amount of touch screen interaction, amount of time looking at display, and finally, the same data when the display was turned off. In accordance, over three hundred routes were analyzed with an average walking time of 7.8 min after filtering. Thus, the researchers were able to effectively conclude that this application reduced the amount of time users spent looking at their screen when walking in a foreign environment.
On another aspect, the subjective nature of this application was assessed through user comments and feedback. The feedback was open ended with assessing how the user felt about the device, rather than relying on specific survey questions. Overall, the users felt that the application had potential to increase environmental awareness, but on a negative aspect, the application did drain the battery rather fast. This could possible indicate that a hybrid solution of battery life and tactile feedback would accumulate even more users to protect themselves from inherent dangers.
All in all, the researchers did a positive job of using unbiased quantified data in conjunction with biased and subjective data. From this, they were able to infer some results, while detailing to the reader the methodologies that they used. Furthermore, the researchers noted the limitations in their application. This implies that they did analyze it from all directions.
Discussion:
All in all, this work posed an interesting new approach to pedestrian traveling. Although the idea was novel, it appears that the implementation of this research needs some additional work. For instance, most pedestrians using this application did not use it in the way the researchers intended. Although the researchers wanted an experiment free of outside nudging, the application itself caused users to ignore the tactile addition, for the most part. However, continuation on top of this work could lead to a whole new perception of pedestrian navigation.
The evaluation was extremely solid. The most benevolent aspect of the evaluation was the fact that the researchers did note their downfalls and limitations, instead of trying to cover them up. Furthermore, I would suggest to the researchers that the idea of tactile navigation is grand. But, then manner in which the system was approached proved problematic. My advice would be to create an additional iPhone accessory with increased vibration power, and an external battery to prevent some of the user complaints at the end of the survey. Overall, it was an insightful and interesting piece of work.
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