If you’re working on mid-air interactions or hand gestures to interact remotely with a computer, or to create the next augmented reality (AR) gadget, then you’re bound to find that your novel ironman-like interface in mid-air undulating with hands is VERY tedious . And that’s no small matter. Known as the gorilla arm effect, this phenomenon was one of the obstacles to the adoption of early touch interfaces.

At the CHI 2014 conference in Toronto, we will present our research on how to measure arm fatigue non-obtrusively and quantitatively. Our metric is called endurance consumed, and is based on Rohmert’s biomechanical studies of upper limb endurance time. [1]. Endurance time is defined as the maximum amount of time a muscle can maintain a level of contraction before requiring rest. Our metric, called Endurance Consumed (CE), is defined as the ratio between interaction time and available endurance time. The following video is a great preview of our upcoming presentation at CHI.

Please check [project page] for more information.

Quote

• Hincapié-Ramos, J.D., Guo, In Proc. CHI 2014, May 2014, Toronto, Canada. [pdf (1.0MB)]

Downloads

• Workbench Consumed Durability (CE). [download]