Empirical evaluation of uni- and bimodal pen and touch interaction properties on digital tabletops

Combined bimanual pen and touch input on digital tabletops is an appealing interaction paradigm enjoying growing popularity among many HCI researchers. Due to its relative novelty, its properties are still relatively unexplored and many hypotheses emerging from intuition and extrapolations from studies about touch and other pointing devices remain to be verified. We present an empirical evaluation consisting of three experiments aimed at investigating a few important issues of pen and touch interaction on horizontal surfaces. Specifically, we examine the compromise between speed and accuracy for the two input modalities in positioning and tracing contexts, the influence of palm-resting on pen precision and bimanual coordination for pen mode-switching via postures. We report on quantitative and qualitative results obtained from these trials and discuss their potential impact on the design of pen and touch systems.

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