This analysis was accepted by and acquired a Greatest Paper Award throughout ACM Designing Interactive Techniques (DIS) 2023, which is devoted to advancing the sphere of user-centered system design.
Headphones are historically used to supply and handle audio experiences by way of bodily controls and a spread of sensors. Nonetheless, these controls and sensors have remained confined to audio enter and output performance, akin to adjusting the quantity or muting the microphone. Think about if headphones might transcend their function as mere audio gadgets.
As a result of headphones rank among the many hottest wearables out there, we now have an thrilling alternative to increase their capabilities by way of integrating current sensors with supplementary ones to allow all kinds of experiences that transcend conventional audio management. In our paper, “Past Audio: In direction of a Design House of Headphones as a Website for Interplay and Sensing,” we share a imaginative and prescient that explores this potential.
Through the use of sensors akin to microphones, proximity sensors, movement sensors, inertial measurement items (IMUs), and LiDARs, headphone designers can discover new avenues of enter and interplay. The truth that headphones are worn on an individual’s head permits for a variety of purposes, akin to following head actions, physique postures, and hand gestures. Moreover, as wearable gadgets, headphones have the potential to supply wearers with context-rich info and allow extra intuitive and immersive interactions with their gadgets and setting past conventional button-based controls.
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Potential eventualities for sensor-enhanced headphones
To discover this idea additional, we suggest augmenting headphones with further sensors and enter widgets. These embody:
- IMUs to sense head orientation
- Swappable units of enter controls
- A variety-sensing LiDAR that permits the sensing of hand gestures
By incorporating these capabilities, we envision a variety of purposes the place headphone enter acts as a bridge between the particular person sporting it and their setting and allow extra environment friendly and context-aware interactions amongst a number of gadgets and duties. For instance, a headphone might help folks with purposes like video video games or assist handle interruptions throughout a video name.
Let’s discover some eventualities as an example the potential of our headphone design idea. Contemplate an individual engaged in a video name with teammates when they’re abruptly interrupted by a colleague who approaches in particular person. On this scenario, our headphones can be outfitted to detect contextual cues, akin to when the wearer rotates their head away from a video name, signaling a shift in consideration. In response, the headphones might routinely blur the video feed and mute the microphone to guard the wearer’s privateness, as proven in Determine 1. This function might additionally talk to different individuals that the wearer is quickly engaged in one other dialog or exercise. When the wearer returns their consideration to the decision, the system removes the blur and reactivates the microphone.
In one other privacy-focused situation, think about an individual concurrently conversing with a number of teammates in separate video name channels. Our headphone design permits the wearer to regulate to whom their speech is directed by merely their supposed viewers, as proven in Determine 2. This directed speech interplay can prolong past video calls and be utilized to different contexts, akin to sending focused voice instructions to teammates in a multiplayer online game.
In our paper, we additionally show how socially recognizable gestures can introduce new types of audio-visual management as a substitute of relying solely on on-screen controls. For instance, wearers might work together with media by way of gestural actions, akin to cupping their ear in the direction of the audio supply to extend the quantity whereas concurrently decreasing ambient noise, as proven in Determine 3. These gestures, ingrained in social and cultural contexts, can function each management mechanisms and nonverbal communication alerts.
Moreover, we are able to estimate the wearer’s head gaze by way of using an IMU. When mixed with the bodily location of computing gadgets within the wearer’s neighborhood, it opens up prospects for seamless interactions throughout a number of gadgets. As an example, throughout a video name, the wearer can share the display screen of the machine they’re actively specializing in. On this situation, the wearer shifts their consideration from an exterior monitor to a pill machine. Although this pill will not be instantly related to the principle laptop computer, our system easily transitions the display screen sharing for the wearer’s viewers within the video name, as proven in Determine 4.
Lastly, in our paper we additionally present using embodied interactions, the place the wearer’s physique actions serve to animate a digital illustration of themselves, akin to an avatar in a video name, as proven in Determine 5. This function can be applied as a gameplay mechanism. Take a racing recreation as an illustration, the place the wearer’s physique actions might management the automobile’s steering, proven on the left in Determine 6. To increase this functionality, these actions might allow a wearer to peek round obstacles in any first-person recreation, enhancing the immersion and gameplay expertise, proven on the correct in Determine 6.
Design house for headphone interactions
We outline a design house for interactive headphones by way of an exploration of two distinct ideas, which we focus on in depth in our paper.
First, we take a look at the kind of enter gesture for the interplay, which we additional classify into three classes. The gestural enter from the wearer would possibly fall underneath a number of of those classes, which we define in additional element beneath and illustrate in Determine 7.
- Contact-based gestures that contain tangible inputs on the headphones, akin to buttons or knobs, requiring bodily contact by the wearer
- Mid-air gestures, which the wearer makes with their fingers in shut proximity to the headphones, detected by way of LiDAR know-how
- Head orientation, indicating the path of the wearer’s consideration
The second manner that we outline the design house is thru the context inside which the wearer executes the motion. Right here, design issues for sensor-enhanced headphones transcend consumer intentionality and noticed movement. Context-awareness permits these headphones to know the wearer’s actions, the purposes they’re engaged with, and the gadgets of their neighborhood, as illustrated in Determine 8. This understanding permits the headphones to supply customized experiences and seamlessly combine with the wearer’s setting. The 4 classes that outline this context-awareness are comprised of the next:
- Context-free actions, which produce comparable outcomes whatever the lively software, the wearer’s exercise, or the social or bodily setting.
- Context that’s outlined by the appliance with which the wearer is interacting. For instance, are they listening to music, on a video name, or watching a film?
- Context that’s outlined by the wearer’s physique. For instance, is the wearer’s gesture near a physique half that has an related which means? Eyes would possibly relate to visible features, ears to audio enter, and the mouth to audio output.
- Context that’s outlined by the wearer’s setting. For instance, are there different gadgets or folks across the wearer with whom they could need to work together?
Wanting forward: Increasing the probabilities of HCI with on a regular basis wearables
Sensor-enhanced headphones provide a promising avenue for designers to create immersive and context-aware consumer experiences. By incorporating sensors, these headphones can seize refined consumer behaviors, facilitating seamless interactions and enhancing the wearer’s total expertise.
From safeguarding privateness to offering intuitive management mechanisms, the potential purposes for sensor-enhanced headphones are huge and thrilling. This exploration with headphones scratches the floor of what context-aware wearable know-how can empower its wearers to realize. Contemplate the multitude of wearables we use on daily basis that would profit from integrating comparable sensing and interplay capabilities into these gadgets. For instance, think about a watch that may monitor your hand actions and detect gestures. By enabling communication between sensor-enhanced wearables, we are able to set up a cohesive ecosystem for human-computer interplay that spans throughout purposes, gadgets, and social contexts.
