Towards an Objective Comparison of Scanning-Based Interaction Techniques

The direction where a user points a mobile phone to can be measured with the phone's integrated compass. Pointing over time and with varying direction is often referred to as scanning , which is an emerging interaction technique and increasingly applied in the eld of mobile navigation and orientation. Because there is no need to look at the screen while scanning, often haptic or audio feedback is used. In fact there exist several di erent scanning-based interaction concepts. However, until now it is impossible to analyse and compare these techniques systematically to identify the best concept for a certain scenario. In this paper we investigated how our own Tactile Compass scanning technique has been used in a eld study. Based on our observations we identi ed a set of measures, which we propose to become a standard set for the analysis and comparison of scan-based interaction techniques. We further argue that our contribution may be bene cial for the creation of guidelines and support designers in selecting a proper scan-based interaction technique.