A comparative study on distant free-hand pointing

Abstract

In this paper we present a comparative study of free-hand pointing, an absolute remote pointing device. Unimanual and bimanual interaction were tested as well as the static reference system (spatial coordinates are fixed in the space in front of the TV) and novel body-aligned reference system (coordinates are bound to the current position of the user). We conducted a point-and-click experiment with 12 participants. We have identified the preferred interaction areas for left- and right-handed users in terms of hand preference and preferred spatial areas of the interaction. In bimanual interaction, the users relied more on dominant hand, switching hands only when necessary. Even though the remote pointing device was faster than the free-hand pointing, it was less accepted probably due to its low precision.