ShifTable: A Natural Remote Target-Selection Technique on Large Displays

Abstract

To simplify the selection of remote targets on large displays, a novel technique called ShifTable is presented in this paper. With ShifTable, users move a finger or a pen towards a desired target, and the whole screen carrying the target shifts faster in the opposite direction, towards the finger or pen. We conducted two experiments to compare ShifTable with unaided direct selection (baseline), Gesture Select and Pan. The results show that ShifTable was significantly faster than unaided direct selection and Gesture Select in selection time, and outperformed Gesture Select in error rate. In addition, elderly participants were able to copy-and-paste targets significantly faster with ShifTable than with Pan. Although ShifTable's simple operation allows users to easily and naturally select remote targets on a large display, we also found usability issues that need to be addressed for this intuitive technique to be more widely accepted by the elderly users.