Shumin Zhai (IBM)
IBM Almaden Research Center

Séminaire CHM du 08 juillet 2002

Abstract

In this talk I will review two research projects on computer input at the IBM Almaden Research center - ATOMIK keyboard and MAGIC pointing.

ATOMIK (Alphabetically Tuned and Optimized Mobile Interface Keyboard) is an stylus based keyboard designed to efficiently enter text on mobile devices (Zhai, Smith, Hunter, 2000, 2002). ATOMIK was optimized by a Metropolis algorithm in which the keyboard was treated as a "molecule" and each key as an "atom". The "atomic" interactions among all of the keys drove the movement efficiency towards the minimum. ATOMIK was also alphabetically tuned for ease of learning and optimized for letter connectivity of the most common words.

Eye gaze tracking has long been considered as an alternative or potentially superior pointing method for computer input. However many fundamental limitations exist with traditional gaze pointing. We have explored an alternative approach, dubbed MAGIC (Manual And Gaze Input Cascaded) pointing (Zhai, Morimoto, Ihde, 1999), to overcome these limitations. MAGIC implicitly uses eye gaze to define user's starting point of action. Our early-stage exploration showed that the MAGIC pointing techniques might offer many advantages, including reduced physical effort and fatigue as compared to traditional manual pointing and greater accuracy and naturalness than traditional gaze pointing.

Brief Bio:

Shumin Zhai is Research Staff Member at the IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, California. He is currently on sabbatical at LRI, Universite Paris-Sud. He has led the research and development of the IBM ScrollPoint Mouse; received 9 US patents, awarded three IBM Research Division Achievements, and published over 60 research papers. He is an associate editor of ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction, and a member of editorial boards of Interacting with Computers, and Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto. More information and his publications can be found at: http://www.almaden.ibm.com/u/zhai/