User Elicitation on Single-hand Microgestures

Gestural interaction has become increasingly popular, as enabling technologies continue to transition from research to retail. The mobility of miniaturized (and invisible) technologies introduces new uses for gesture recognition. This paper investigates single-hand microgestures (SHMGs), detailed gestures in a small interaction space. SHMGs are suitable for the mobile and discrete nature of interactions for ubiquitous computing. However, there has been a lack of end-user input in the design of such gestures. We performed a user-elicitation study with 16 participants to determine their preferred gestures for a set of referents. We contribute an analysis of 1,632 gestures, the resulting gesture set, and prevalent conceptual themes amongst the elicited gestures. These themes provide a set of guidelines for gesture designers, while informing the designs of future studies. With the increase in hand-tracking and electronic devices in our surroundings, we see this as a starting point for designing gestures suitable to portable ubiquitous computing.