Turn-Based Gesture Interaction in Mobile Devices

When properly designed, gesture interaction can bring usability benefits to mobile device users. This article introduces a new accelerometer-enabled method of mobile device gesture control, namely the turn-based interaction. Turning is a commonly understood concept in interaction with tangible objects. Applied in mobile devices as an abstracted virtual key command, it extends the variety of potentially useful gesture control use cases. This article compactly explains the essential factors of designing a successful sensor-enabled gesture interface for mobile devices. In the light of these design factors, two example use cases of turn-based interaction with a prototype are presented. The reliability of recognizing a turn gesture is verified quantitatively to confirm that the introduced method is technically feasible.