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BackTap: robust four-point tapping on the back of an off-the-shelf smartphone

Published: 08 October 2013 Publication History

Abstract

We present BackTap, an interaction technique that extends the input modality of a smartphone to add four distinct tap locations on the back case of a smartphone. The BackTap interaction can be used eyes-free with the phone in a user's pocket, purse, or armband while walking, or while holding the phone with two hands so as not to occlude the screen with the fingers. We employ three common built-in sensors on the smartphone (microphone, gyroscope, and accelerometer) and feature a lightweight heuristic implementation. In an evaluation with eleven participants and three usage conditions, users were able to tap four distinct points with 92% to 96% accuracy.

References

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Cited By

View all
  • (2021)Watching Your Phone's BackProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/34635225:2(1-26)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2021
  • (2021)TapNet: The Design, Training, Implementation, and Applications of a Multi-Task Learning CNN for Off-Screen Mobile InputProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445626(1-11)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
  • (2018)VSkinProceedings of the 24th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking10.1145/3241539.3241568(591-605)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2018
  • Show More Cited By

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  1. BackTap: robust four-point tapping on the back of an off-the-shelf smartphone

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    Published In

    cover image ACM Conferences
    UIST '13 Adjunct: Adjunct Proceedings of the 26th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology
    October 2013
    126 pages
    ISBN:9781450324069
    DOI:10.1145/2508468
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 08 October 2013

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    Author Tags

    1. acoustic classification
    2. always-available input
    3. heuristics
    4. inertial sensors
    5. lightweight interaction
    6. mobile
    7. touch

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    UIST'13
    UIST'13: The 26th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology
    October 8 - 11, 2013
    St. Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom

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    UIST '13 Adjunct Paper Acceptance Rate 49 of 317 submissions, 15%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 355 of 1,733 submissions, 20%

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    UIST '25
    The 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology
    September 28 - October 1, 2025
    Busan , Republic of Korea

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2021)Watching Your Phone's BackProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/34635225:2(1-26)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2021
    • (2021)TapNet: The Design, Training, Implementation, and Applications of a Multi-Task Learning CNN for Off-Screen Mobile InputProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445626(1-11)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
    • (2018)VSkinProceedings of the 24th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking10.1145/3241539.3241568(591-605)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2018
    • (2017)βTapProceedings of the 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services10.1145/3098279.3125440(1-6)Online publication date: 4-Sep-2017
    • (2016)Less Is MoreProceedings of the 2016 ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces10.1145/2992154.2992166(5-11)Online publication date: 6-Nov-2016
    • (2016)CloakingNoteProceedings of the 29th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/2984511.2984571(473-481)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2016
    • (2016)WatchOutProceedings of the 2016 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers10.1145/2971763.2971775(136-143)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2016
    • (2016)Beyond the TouchscreenACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems10.1145/29540036:2(1-23)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2016
    • (2014)VibkinesisProceedings of the 27th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology10.1145/2642918.2647365(535-540)Online publication date: 5-Oct-2014
    • (2014)BackPatProceedings of the 16th international conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices & services10.1145/2628363.2628396(77-80)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2014

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