BaroTouch: A Technique for Touch Force Sensing Using a Waterproof Device's Built-in Barometer

• Takada Ryosuke

  University of Tsukuba

• Ando Toshiyuki

  University of Tsukuba

• Shizuki Buntarou

  University of Tsukuba

• Takahashi Shin

  University of Tsukuba

Abstract

We present BaroTouch, a technique that leverages a waterproof mobile device's built-in barometer to measure the touch force. When an airtight waterproof device is touched, the distorted surface changes the air pressure inside that device and thus changes the built-in barometer value. BaroTouch estimates the touch force with a simple conversion from the air pressure to the touch force; it does not need machine learning. In addition, BaroTouch is a passive sensing technique. Therefore, BaroTouch could be lightweight. To investigate BaroTouch, we conducted two experiments. First, we investigated the relationship between the sensor value and the touch positions or forces using weights with three devices: two smartphones and a smartwatch. Second, in a controlled user study with 15 participants, we examined how the users can use BaroTouch. The results showed that the participants could exert 2-6 levels of the touch force with accuracies of over 96% accuracy under each device using BaroTouch.

Journal

• Journal of Information Processing

  Journal of Information Processing 27 (0), 106-115, 2019

  Information Processing Society of Japan

Keywords

• force input
• pressure sensing
• touch screen
• smartphone
• smartwatch

Details

• CRID: 1390001288122552832
• NII Article ID: 130007593559
• NII Book ID: AA00700121
• DOI: 10.2197/ipsjjip.27.106
• ISSN: 18826652
• ISSN: 03876101
• HANDLE: 2241/00157885
• Web Site: https://tsukuba.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/52463
• Web Site: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ipsjjip/27/0/27_106/_pdf
• Text Lang: en
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • IRDB
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed