Expanding the Vocabulary of Multitouch Input using Magnetic Fingerprints
This work addresses input limitations for mobile device users by enabling more touch interactions, though it is incremental as it builds on existing multitouch techniques.
The paper tackled the problem of expanding multitouch input vocabulary on mobile devices by introducing magnetic fingerprints, which differentiate normal and magnetic touches using a fingernail magnet, achieving 95% classification accuracy and nearly tripling distinguishable multitouch events.
We present magnetic fingerprints; an input technique for mobile touchscreen devices that uses a small magnet attached to a user's fingernail in order to differentiate between a normal touch and a magnetic touch. The polarity of the magnet can be used to create different magnetic fingerprints where this technique takes advantage of the rich vocabulary offered by the use of multitouch input. User studies investigate the accuracy of magnetic fingerprint recognition in relation to magnet size, number of magnetic fingerprints used; and size of the touchscreen. Studies found our technique to be limited to using up to two fingerprints non-simultaneously, while achieving a high classification accuracy (95%) but it nearly triples the number of distinguishable multi touch events. Potential useful applications of this technique are presented.