Interactive on-skin devices for expressive touch-based interactions

Skin has been proposed as a large, always-available, and easy to access input surface for mobile computing. However, it is fundamentally different than prior rigid devices: skin is elastic, highly curved, and provides tactile sensation. This thesis advances the understanding of skin as an input surface and contributes novel skin-worn devices and their interaction techniques. We present the indings from an elicitation study on how and where people interact on their skin. The indings show that participants use various body locations for onskin interaction. Moreover, they show that skin allows for expressive interaction using multi-touch input and skin-speciic modalities. We contribute three skin-worndevice classes and their interaction techniques to enable expressive on-skin interactions: iSkin investigates multi-touch and pressure input on various body locations. SkinMarks supports touch, squeeze, and bend sensing with colocated visual output. The devices’ conformality to skin enables interaction on highly challenging body locations. Finally, ExpressSkin investigates expressive interaction techniques using luid combinations of high-resolution pressure, shear, and squeeze input. Taken together, this thesis contributes towards expressive on-skin interactionwithmultitouch and skin-speciic input modalities on various body locations.