Foggy fun: an exploration of mid-air gestural interaction with a fogscreen by children with attention-deficits

This study represents the first exploration of active gaming based on mid-air gestural interaction with a fogscreen, focusing on its feasibility for children with attention deficits. The aim was to evaluate the practicality and effectiveness of gestural interaction in two interaction scenarios involving translation and selection of objects projected on the fog, through the assessment of interaction performance and subjective opinions. The proposed approach was investigated in a custom-designed puzzle-based game Tangram. Eighteen novice participants, namely, children with confirmed attention deficits or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) played the game collaboratively in pairs during six sessions. Our results demonstrated that gestural interaction with the fogscreen in the Tangram game was not only enjoyable and engaging but also facilitated effective task completion, as shown by an 81% game success rate. During object translation, the participants typically needed two to three attempts to accurately relocate a puzzle piece, with 42% of translation movements adjusting the pieces’ placements. Further, in object selection, it was underlined the importance of visual feedback corresponding to the user’s hand position for effective interaction. These insights underscore the potential implications of gestural interfaces for fogscreen interaction in active gaming for children.