1 Scope
This document provides guidance on the design, selection and optimization of non-contacting
hand and arm gestures for human-computer interaction. It addresses the assessment
of usability and fatigue associated with different gesture set designs and provides
recommendations for approaches to evaluating the design and selection of gestures.
This document also provides guidance on the documentation of the process for selecting
gesture sets.
This document applies to gestures expressed by humans. It does not consider the technology
for detecting gestures or the system response when interpreting a gesture. Non-contacting
hand gestures can be used for input in a variety of settings, including the workplace
or in public settings and when using fixed screens, mobile, virtual reality, augmented
reality or mixed-mode reality devices.
Some limitations of this document are:
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— The scope is limited to non-contacting gestures and does not include other forms of
inputs. For example, combining gesture with speech, gaze or head position can reduce
input error, but these combinations are not considered here.
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— The scope is limited to non-contacting arm, hand and finger gestures, either unilateral
(one-handed) or bilateral (two-handed).
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— The scope assumes that all technological constraints are surmountable. Therefore,
there is no consideration of technological limitations with interpreting ultra-rapid
gestures, gestures performed by people of different skin tones or wearing different
colours or patterns of clothing.
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— The scope is limited to UI-based command-and-control human computer interaction (HCI)
tasks and does not include gaming scenarios, although the traversal of in-game menus
and navigation of UI elements is within scope.
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— The scope does not include HCI tasks for which an obviously more optimal input method
exists. For example, speech input is superior for inputting text than gesture input.
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— The scope includes virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality
(MR) and the use of head-mounted displays (HMDs).
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— The scope does not include the discoverability of gestures but does include the learnability
and memorability of gestures. It is assumed that product documentation and tutorials
will adequately educate end users about which gestures are possible. Therefore, assessing
gesture discoverability is not a primary goal of the recommendations in this document.