Eyes-free Circular Gestures on Smartphones

Smartphones are used in various situations, such as when users have limited visual focus, such as when walking or driving. Eyes-free gestures offer a way to interact with smartphones without requiring visual attention. This research delves into circular eyes-free gestures and elucidates the advantages they offer over other types of gestures in facilitating eyes-free interaction. We carried out two experiments to explore the ability of participants to accurately draw arcs with varying angles in a smartphone’s eyes-free context. The results of the first experiment revealed that participants commonly tended to exceed the intended arc lengths, regardless of whether they were drawing arcs clockwise or counterclockwise. The results of the second experiment showed that there is a high variation in drawing eye-free circular gestures by the same user. However, this variation decreases if the second gesture is produced immediately after the first one.