An Extended Study of Numeric Entry on Pen - based Computers

An extended study of two methods of numeric entry on pen-based computers is described. Traditional handwriting and a new technique called "pie pad" were tested. With the pie pad, digits were entered by stroking on the input surface in the direction each digit appears on the face of a clock. Six subjects entered sequences of digits over 20 sessions using each entry method. Although error rates did not change significantly over the study, entry speed did, with handwriting becoming II % faster and the pie pad becoming 52% faster. Initially, handwriting was the faster entry method; however, after the sixth session, the pie pad method became faster. By the 20th session, the pie pad method was 24% faster than handwriting. The majority of subjects preferred using the pie pad over handwriting at the end of the study. These results demonstrate that novel methods of interacting with pen-based computers can be more effective than conventional interaction. Une etude de deux methodes d'entree numerique sur un ordinateur a stylo est decrite. L' ecriture manuscrite et une nouvelle technique, l'usage d'un pave circulaire, ont ete etudies. Avec l'usage d'un pave circulaire, les chiffres sont entres en inscrivant une ligne sur la surface d' entree dans la direction du chiffre qui apparait sur la face d'une horloge. Six sujets ont ecrit des sequences de chiffres durant 20 sessions en utilisant les deux methodes. Meme si le pourcentage d'erreur n'a pas change sensiblement pendant l'etude, la vitesse d'entree a augmente; la vitesse de l' ecriture manuscrite a augmente de 11 % et celle de l'usage du pave a augmente de 52%. Au debut, l'ecriture manuscrite etait plus rapide, cependant, apres la sixieme session, l'usage du pave circulaire est devenu encore plus rapide. Apres la vingtieme session, l'usage du pave circulaire etait 24% 'IDepartment of Computing and Information Science University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario NIG 2WI [email protected] cs [email protected] plus rapide que l'ecriture manuscrite. A la fin de l' etude, la majorite des sujets ont prefere I' usage du pave circulaire. Ces resultats demontrent que les nouvelles methodes d'interactions avec les ordinateurs a stylo peuvent etre plus efficaces que les methodes traditionnelles. Introduction Pen-based computers exhibit an imbalance often cited between computer hardware and user interfaces. That is, the components of pen-based computers are mature with respect to digitized input, high-resolution output, high-performance CPUs, and so on; whereas, the user interface is primitive and hinders facile interaction. Pen-based computing crosses many boundaries -from pocket-sized Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to large "whiteboard" displays. The primary market for small pen-based computers is people who work intensively with information yet work away from a desk (e.g., field-service personnel, couriers, doctors). With this in mind, new mechanisms are needed to support the entry of information into a pen-based computers. There is no standard interface as yet, so the opportunity exists to embark on new paths in designing pen-based interfaces. The danger is in simply extending existing desktop interfaces such as Microsoft has done with Pen Windows. Pen Windows is essentially Windows with numerous pen extensions. It does not acknowledge that pen-based interaction is inherently different from desktop computing. A key problem facing pen-based computing is in developing interaction techniques that are easy for the user to learn, yet simple for the computer to interpret. Two obvious ways of entering data are handwriting and tapping on a soft keyboard. The latter technique is the act of pointing with a stylus to an image of a Graphics Interface '95