Seven Key Interaction Technologies For Wearable Devices

Wearable equipment is commonly understood as a wearable portable computing device, which has the characteristics of miniaturization, portability, small size, and strong mobility. Therefore, in terms of human-computer interaction, it is different from ordinary computing devices or smart devices. It is a direct, seamless and fully connected interaction method between humans and computers. Its main features include single (double) hand release, voice interaction, perception enhancement, Tactile interaction, conscious interaction, etc. The main interaction methods and technologies include the following seven aspects:

1. Bone conduction interactive technology

Bone conduction interaction technology is mainly a sound-oriented interaction technology, which transmits sound signals directly to the inner ear through the vibrating skull instead of the outer ear and middle ear. Bone conduction vibration does not directly stimulate the auditory nerve, but the vibration of the basement membrane in the cochlea it stimulates is exactly the same as air conduction sound, but the sensitivity is lower.

Under normal circumstances, sound waves are transmitted into the inner ear through two paths of air conduction and bone conduction, and then the inner and perilymph fluids of the inner ear produce vibrations. The spiral organ completes the sensory process, and then the auditory nerve generates nerve impulses, which are presented to the auditory center and the brain. After a comprehensive analysis of the cortex, the sound is finally "heared". To put it simply, we cover our ears with our hands and talk to ourselves, no matter how small the sound is, we can hear what we say. This is the result of bone conduction.

Bone conduction technology usually consists of two parts, generally divided into bone conduction input equipment and bone conduction output equipment. Bone conduction input equipment refers to the use of bone conduction technology to receive the bone vibration signal generated when the speaker is speaking, and transmit it to the remote or recording device. Bone conduction output device refers to a device that converts the transmitted audio electrical signal into a bone vibration signal, and transmits the vibration to the human inner ear through the skull.

At present, in smart glasses, smart headphones, etc., bone conduction technology is a relatively common interactive technology, including Google Glass also uses sound bone conduction technology to build the sound interaction between the device and the user.

2. Eye tracking interactive technology

Eye tracking is also called gaze tracking and eye movement measurement. Eye tracking technology is a scientific application technology. There are usually three tracking methods: one is to track according to the changes in the characteristics of the eyeball and the periphery of the eyeball, the other is to track according to the change of the iris angle, and the third is to actively project infrared beams to the iris. Extract features. Eye tracking technology is an important technology in contemporary psychology research. It has existed for a long time and has been widely used in experimental psychology, applied psychology, engineering psychology, cognitive neuroscience and other fields. With the advent of wearable devices, especially smart glasses, this technology has begun to be applied to human-computer interaction with wearable devices.

The main principle of eye tracking interactive technology is that when people’s eyes look in different directions, there will be subtle changes in the eyes, and these changes will produce features that can be extracted. The computer can extract these features through image capture or scanning, so as to realize real-time Track the changes of the eyes, predict the user's status and needs, and respond to it to achieve the purpose of controlling the device with the eyes.

Usually eye tracking can be divided into three steps: hardware detection, data extraction, and data integration. The hardware detection obtains the original eye movement data in image or electromagnetic form. The data is extracted by digital image processing and other methods as the eye movement data value in coordinate form. The value is the same as the eye movement prior model and user interface attributes in the data synthesis stage. , Head movement tracking data, user pointing operation information, etc. are integrated to realize the gaze and eye tracking function.

3. AR/MR interactive technology

Augmented reality (AR) refers to providing informative and entertaining coverage on the real environment, such as superimposing graphics, text, sound, and hypertext on the real environment to provide additional information, so as to realize reminders, prompts, The auxiliary functions such as marking, annotation and explanation are the combination of virtual environment and real environment. Interventional reality (MR) is the product of the computer's processing of the real world.

AR/MR technology can provide new application methods for wearable devices, mainly by constructing a new virtual screen between humans and machines, and realizing the interaction of scenes with the help of virtual screens. This is currently one of the most widely used interactive technologies in smart glasses, immersive devices, somatosensory games, etc.

4. Voice interaction technology

Voice interaction can be said to be the most direct interaction between humans and computers in the era of wearable devices, and it is also one of the most widely used interaction technologies. In particular, the emergence of wearable devices and the gradual maturity of related speech recognition and big data technologies have brought new opportunities for voice interaction. The rise of the new generation of voice interaction is not a breakthrough in recognition technology, but the key is to properly integrate voice with smart terminals and cloud backends, allowing human voices to communicate with the world of programs by means of data. , And achieve the purpose of controlling and understanding user intentions. The front-end uses voice technology, and focuses on integrating various technologies such as web search, knowledge calculation, database, and Q&A recommendation in the back-end, which makes up for the limitations of voice technology that relied solely on front-end commands in the past.

The application of voice interaction technology is divided into two development directions: one direction is a large vocabulary continuous speech recognition system, which is mainly used in computer dictation machines; the other important development direction is the application of miniaturized and portable voice products, such as wireless mobile phones. Dials, smart toys, etc. Of course, the key factor that has not yet been fully popularized is that the ability to reject interference in speech recognition needs to be strengthened, and recognition in multiple contexts needs to be improved.

5. Somatosensory interaction technology

Somatosensory interaction technology refers to the use of computer graphics and other technologies to recognize human body language and convert it into computer-understandable operating commands to operate equipment. Somatosensory interaction is a new way of human-computer interaction following the mouse, keyboard and touch screen. It can also be said to be a human-computer interaction technology driven by the trend of wearable devices.

The body, including gesture communication, is a human instinct. Before learning language and writing, you can communicate with people using body language. In fact, gesture interaction technology has existed for a long time. In the past 30 years, researchers have been studying interactive systems based on body language. Because body language is the most frequent in daily life, it is easy to recognize. It's just that all previous researches based on body language mainly focus on gesture recognition, and have less language on body posture and head posture. With the development of wearable devices, especially the smart apparel industry and the somatosensory interaction industry, it can be said that somatosensory interaction will become an indispensable human-computer interaction technology for wearable devices.

Among them, gesture interaction is the most representative. Gesture recognition uses various sensors to continuously collect the shape and displacement of the hand/hand-held tool, and completes modeling at regular intervals to form a sequence frame of model information. These information sequences are converted into corresponding instructions, which are used to control the realization of certain operations. With the maturity of various technologies and the development of sensors, gesture recognition has entered the usability stage, and various products and solutions have begun to emerge.

6. Haptic interaction technology

Tactile interaction is a relatively new human-computer interaction technology in the wearable device industry, which will have a profound impact on the information exchange and communication methods between humans and computers. The sense of touch can be said to be the mother of all senses in the human body, and one of the important channels through which humans communicate with the outside world and feel the outside world. Information such as hardness, coldness, warmth, thickness, and object shape can all be sensed in touch, and more complex human emotional communication can also be realized through touch. Tactile interaction studies how to use tactile information to enhance the communication between humans and computers and robots. Its fields include surgical simulation training, entertainment, remote robot operation, product design, industrial design, etc. Tactile interaction currently has a certain application exploration in immersive smart products, and it will be a key interaction technology for humans to "really" perceive the outside world in virtual reality in the future.

7. Brainwave interaction technology

Brain wave interaction can also be understood as a consciousness control technology. This technology has been explored to a certain extent at present, but it has not been widely used. It can be said that brainwave interaction technology will be the ultimate interaction method in the wearable device industry, not only building a new way of communication between people and devices, but also building a new way of communication between people. In the future, with the help of brainwave interaction technology, people will reach a full "tacit understanding" between people. Similarly, a new way of human-computer interaction will be constructed between people and devices, which can be said to be the ultimate way of interaction in the wearable era.