Toward a Buttonless Interface
I have been struggling for a while with the lack of user input on the PDA project. I had considered adding an interface through the RF transceiver, but that would mean I would need to be near a PC. I have been unable to find any pushbuttons that I like to install on the face. So I did the next best thing. A sharp sideways tap on the right side of the enclosure brings up a menu, with a small circle next to the selected item:
Tilting the unit in the y direction moves the selection circle, and another tap selects the item. It still needs a bit of tweaking. It seems much easier to tilt in the x direction, because I tilt the unit towards my face when looking at the screen, and that makes the selection circle move down the llist.
Here are links to a few thing I found during my research into tiny user interfaces:
- TiltType: An Accelerometer Based Text Entry Method
- Sensing Techniques for Multi-Device Interfaces (PDF)
- Shake Them Up! A Movement Based Pairing Protocol
- Bringing Sketching Tools to Keychain Computers with an Acceleration-Based Interface
- GUI Development: Embedding Graphics Part I Part II
- Variability in Wrist-Tilt Accelerometer Based Gesture Interfaces
- Detecting Freefall with Low-G Accelerometers,Measuring Tilt with Low-G Accelerometers
