Wearable joystick for gloves-on human/computer interaction

摘要

In this paper, we present preliminary work on a novel wearable joystick for gloves-on human/computer interaction in hazardous environments. Interacting with traditional input devices can be clumsy and inconvenient for the operator in hazardous environments due to the bulkiness of multiple system components and troublesome wires. During a collapsed structure search, for example, protective clothing, uneven footing, and "snag" points in the environment can render traditional input devices impractical. Wearable computing has been studied by various researchers to increase the portability of devices and to improve the proprioceptive sense of the wearer's intentions. Specifically, glove-like input devices to recognize hand gestures have been developed for general-purpose applications. But, regardless of their performance, prior gloves have been fragile and cumbersome to use in rough environments. In this paper, we present a new wearable joystick to remove the wires from a simple, two-degree of freedom glove interface. Thus, we develop a wearable joystick that is low cost, durable and robust, and wire-free at the glove. In order to evaluate the wearable joystick, we take into consideration two metrics during operator tests of a commercial robot: task completion time and path tortuosity. We employ fractal analysis to measure path tortuosity. Preliminary user test results are presented that compare the performance of both a wearable joystick and a traditional joystick.