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Whoosh: Non-voice acoustics for low-cost, hands-free, and rapid input on smartwatches

Abstract:

We present an alternate approach to smartwatch interactions using non-voice acoustic input captured by the device's microphone to complement touch and speech. Whoosh is an interaction technique that recognizes the type and length of acoustic events performed by the user to enable low-cost, hands-free, and rapid input on smartwatches. We build a recognition system capable of detecting non-voice events directed at and around the watch, including blows, sip-and-puff, and directional air swipes, without hardware modifications to the device. Further, inspired by the design of musical instruments, we develop a custom modification of the physical structure of the watch case to passively alter the acoustic response of events around the bezel; this physical redesign expands our input vocabulary with no additional electronics. We evaluate our technique across 8 users with 10 events exhibiting up to 90.5% ten-fold cross validation accuracy on an unmodified watch, and 14 events with 91.3% ten-fold cross validation accuracy with an instrumental watch case. Finally, we share a number of demonstration applications, including multi-device interactions, to highlight our technique with a real-time recognizer running on the watch.