&ldquo;IIT Jodhpur is committed to impart quality education to facilitate the creation of qualified, competent and responsible human resources to meet the emerging technological challenges of the world. It is working towards creating an equitable learning platform that is positive, accessible and effective in the face of the modern societal and scientific advancements.

Flexibility in curriculum, in all its academic programs, encompassing elements of teaching, research, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship is the most unique feature of IIT Jodhpur. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, has identified IIT Jodhpur as a Technology &amp; Innovation Hub in the area of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The institute has also been nominated as the coordinator for the Jodhpur City and Knowledge Cluster by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.

The sprawling 852-acre IIT Jodhpur campus is a majestic tribute to the deep-rooted diverse cultural heritage of the region. The campus is an architectural masterpiece, which is slated to become an international exemplar of sustainability with net-zero energy, and advanced water and waste management strategies.&rdquo;

IIT Jodhpur

Object selection is essential to VR applications, but selecting small objects within arms' reach in dense virtual environments can be challenging. We introduce Tiny Hands, which allows reducing the size of the dominant virtual hand in immersive VR to navigate efficiently and accurately select the desired object. This study compares the tiny hands technique with ray casting and pinch-to-select techniques. Our results indicate that the tiny hands technique is significantly faster and more accurate than the other two techniques. It is also significantly easier to use and learn, perceived as natural, playful, and the most preferred technique. Participants appreciated its ability to resize virtual hands for selecting small objects and ease in navigating a dense VE. They also liked its similarity to mouse and cursor-based interactions and flexibility in adjusting hand size according to various object sizes. Participants perceived tiny hands as potentially fatigued for prolonged use and reported a sense of incorrect depth perception when hand sizes are too small. © 2023 Owner/Author.

School of Liberal Arts (SoLA)

World University root node

Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Wow! I Have Tiny Hands: Design And Evaluation Of Adaptive Virtual Hands For Small Object Selection Within Arms Length In Dense Virtual Environment

Intensive use of the computer mouse is associated with an increased risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Due to prolonged use of the mouse with a wrist posture that deviated from its relaxed posture, users may experience fatigue, discomfort, and even pain on the wrist and hand. Both size and shape of the mouse can be a cause of this associated discomfort. In this work, we have followed a participatory-design approach to propose a design concept and develop a vertical pointing device prototype that offers a comfortable right-handed grip that resembles the relaxed hand posture. This work aims to understand user participation during the design process and how their involvement helped evolve the device concept that enables comfortable grip and novel interaction opportunities. We started the participatory design process using clay mockups to finalize the initial shape. After finalizing the initial shape, we made further modifications based on user feedback. After two iterations, we completed the design and conducted a user study to investigate perceived comfort and pressure on the wrist. We found that the grip on the device was comfortable for participants with medium and large hand sizes, and the majority of them reported no pressure on the wrist. The device allows users to keep their hands in a more ergonomically desired posture. It offers novel interaction modalities as an alternative to the button-based controls of a typical computer mouse. We believe this work will help interaction designers and researchers design ergonomic pointing devices enabling multimodal input interaction. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

Participatory Design of a Computer Mouse

Object selection is an essential task in Virtual Reality applications. Current object selection techniques suffer from issues of hand jitter, accuracy, and higher errors in selecting nail-sized objects in a dense virtual environment. We present tiny hands, a technique to reduce the size of virtual hands to easily navigate and accurately select nail-sized object in a dense environment. We present 3 gesture based interaction techniques (i) Fisting non-dominant hand (ii) Palm downwards for 2 s and (iii) Pinch-in and Pinch-out non-dominant hand in this paper. Our initial findings indicate that tiny hands technique is a versatile approach for selection of small objects in dense VE. Users also found these techniques to be natural, intuitive, easy to use and accurate in selecting small targets in dense VEs. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Communications in Computer and Information Science

Tiny Hands are Cute: Adaptive Virtual Hands to Accurately Select Nail-Size Arm’s Reach Virtual Objects in Dense Immersive VR

Classification of body gestures is vital in HCI research as it benefits researchers with appropriate gestures considering user behavior, mental model, and constraints. This work presents the gesture classification of 87 unique gestures identified through an elicitation study for object selection in Virtual Reality (VR). In addition to adopting existing gesture taxonomies, we propose two new taxonomies based on hand dominance- (i) dominant hand only (ii) non-dominant hand first and (iii) equal and simultaneous hand dominance and multi-body part movement gestures - (i) simultaneous and (ii) sequential. We believe that the proposed classification and taxonomies will assist designers and researchers in designing effective full-body gestural interfaces, including VR interfaces. © 2021 ACM.

ACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Understanding Gesture Performance for Object Selection in VR: Classification and Taxonomy of Gestures in HCI

Flexible devices open opportunities to explore new shapes and interactions for future digital devices. In this paper, we introduce a novel concept of Möbius shaped flexible handheld device. The Möbius shape is proposed due to (a) its ability to double the display view with smaller device structure and (b) propose natural input interactions. We also present input interactions using the free form structure of Möbius shape for commonly performed digital tasks such as scrolling, multi-tasking, multiple selection, writing and an expanded view. Further, we present how Möbius can be converted into a wearable device and a triangular device that supports the user in different usage contexts. Finally, we conclude the paper by providing our views on the contribution of this paper and why such work in important in expanding the horizon of mobile interaction and HCI research on flexible displays. © 2021 ACM.

Novel Input Interactions for a Möbius Shaped Flexible Handheld Device

Recent years have seen incredible growth of Virtual Reality (VR) interfaces. In the area of data visualization and analytics, VR applications offers immense opportunities to interact, modify and explore 3D data in an interactive manner, which help in establishing new trends and patterns. In this regard, object selection is of primary importance. It is the fundamental and initial task in any immersive VR. However, the current literature is limited in investigating the effectiveness of object selection techniques in different VEs including dense and occluded dense VE, varied object sizes, proximity, and distances in the area of Immersive Analytics. In this paper, I present my ongoing PhD research to explore controller-less gestures for nail-size object selection on HMD-VR interface for dense and occluded dense VE. I describe the experiments, the findings and my future studies. I believe the outcome of these experiments in the form of guidelines or framework will enable researchers to design controller-less body gestures for object selection task. © 2021 IEEE.

Proceedings - 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops, VRW 2021

Exploring body gestures for small object selection in dense environment in HMD VR for data visualization applications

In immersive VR environments, object selection is an essential interaction. However, current object selection techniques suffer from issues of hand jitter, accuracy, and fatigue, especially to select nail-size objects. Here, we present locked dwell time-based point and tap, a novel object selection technique designed for nail-size object selection in a dense virtual environment. The objects are within arm's reach. We also compare locked dwell time-based point and tap with magnetic grasp, pinch and raycasting. 40 participants evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of these techniques. The results found that locked dwell time-based point and tap took significantly less task completion time and error rate. It was also the most preferred and caused least effort among all the techniques. We also measured easy to use, easy to learn and perceived naturalness of the techniques. © 2020 Owner/Author.

Proceedings - SUI 2020: ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction

Investigating the Effectiveness of Locked Dwell Time-based Point and Tap Gesture for Selection of Nail-sized Objects in Dense Virtual Environment

Object selection is a fundamental and primary task in any Virtual Environment (VE). However, object selection in dense VEs presents challenges of inaccurate selection, higher error rates and increased task completion times. The challenges are further amplified when target objects are small as nail size, occluded and located at different distances from users. In this paper, we present a two-stage elicitation study for object selection in 4 dense VEs (2x2 selection conditions: The selection of near vs distant objects; with or without occlusion) in a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) based Virtual Reality (VR) platform. In study 1, we identified the most natural and intuitive gestures through a user-generated gesture study. In total, 737 gestures and 23, 29, 26 and 36 unique gestures were collected from 40 participants for mentioned VEs. We calculated an overall score to elucidate further a total of 3, 2, 3 and 3 gestures. In study 2, a new group of 33 participants rated these gestures on ease of performance, gesture appropriateness, body-part suitability and ranked them for user preferences and effort. Finally, we elucidate them to present one gesture each for each VE based on the results obtained from the study 2. We present and discuss the findings of preferences of upper body gestures, a strong emphasis on the confirmation, bringing targets within hands reach and non-occluded, accuracy over effort, scale manipulation of the VE and influence and adoption of WIMP and touch interfaces. A total of 40 non-paid participants (27 males, 13 females) from the age group of 18-35 (Mean= 25.42, SD= 4.07) were chosen for the study. The participants were university students. As Plaumann et al. [32] showed a strong influence of handedness, we recruited only right-handed participants for the study. All participants had prior experience in using HMD-VR platforms (e.g. Oculus Rift and/or HTC Vive). Their experiences included a minimum of 10 hours of playing games or watching movies or combined in the last six months. They were also familiar with gestural interfaces due to prior experience in using a Nintendo Wii remote or Microsoft Kinect for at least 10 hours in the last six months. © 2020 ACM.

A gesture elicitation study for selection of nail size objects in a dense and occluded dense hmd-vr.

Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) based Virtual Reality (VR) has shown promising results in training and education. We present ATOM, an HMD-VR interface to educate students about atoms, atomic structures and historical research experiments conducted in understanding atomic structures. ATOM is designed to complement the classroom learning for grade 9 students through an interactive and practice-based learning experience. Preliminary evaluation with 10 students revealed higher interest, increase engagement and playfulness. The students also pointed out a few difficult user interactions. © 2020 Owner/Author.

Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, VRST

ATOM: HMD-VR Interface to Learn Atomic Structure, Bonding and Historical Research Experiments.

Outbound automated calls present an excellent opportunity to deliver messages among low-technology literate users from a resource-constrained environment, such as rural India. While automated calls have been used for various purposes in rural settings, sufficient research has not been done to understand the motivation for attending the calls, preferred contents, call duration, time, preferred gender of voice, content learnability and preference of automated call over SMS for information delivery. In this paper, we present a study conducted among 40 early-stage Tuberculosis (TB) positive patients to investigate content learnability and preferences of outbound automated calls aimed to increase DOTS adherence. The results indicate the demand for easily actionable contents, evenings as preferred time and less than 5 min as ideal call duration for automated calls. We found the preference of automated calls over SMS for information delivery. We also observed a significant increase in learnability among participants who listened to the complete call as compared to participants who did not. We present these findings in detail and suitable recommendations. © 2019, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

A Study of Outbound Automated Call Preferences for DOTS Adherence in Rural India

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are the essential link to healthy communities for Indian households. We present insights and findings of two focus group studies conducted with 16 ASHAs and 8 ASHA trainers across two health centers in Assam, India. We conducted two focus group studies to investigate challenges and opportunity areas in current health worker training ecosystem. Our objective was to identify insights that formulate design directions in order to develop technology solutions to train ASHAs effectively. We found challenges of poor training schedules, outdated information, inadequate contextual knowledge and field-based challenges, poor accessibility, and portability of the training material and low-confidence in communicating sensitive health information. We propose the need for technology intervention that supports practice-based learning, methods of role-playing and use of cultural songs and dance to increase engagement. We also propose the use of peer learning and sharing among ASHAs to increase adoption and acceptance. © 2019 ACM.

Findings of the user study conducted to understand the training of rural ASHAs in India

Community Health Workers (CHWs), specially Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) play a significant role in improving healthcare services in developing countries like India. Although ASHAs are key-actors influencing rural health care, they are inefficiently trained. This leads to suboptimal knowledge and skill sets, hence poor information delivery among community members. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of Pragati, a mobile-based Head Mounted Display (HMD) enabled Virtual Reality (VR) interface for training ASHAs. A user study conducted among 19 users revealed significant learnability and self-efficacy post-Pragati usage. Further, we conducted a between-group study among 57 CHWs to assess effects of 3 platforms (i) Pragati, (ii) mobile phone-based traditional videos and (iii) mobile phone-based 360-degree video on measures of learnability, self-efficacy, engagement, and presence. The results showed no impact of the platform for learnability and self-efficacy, whereas a significant increase in engagement and presence was observed for Pragati. © 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.

Pragati: Design and evaluation of a mobile phone-based head mounted virtual reality interface to train community health workers in rural India

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are essential link to healthy communities in resource-constrained environments. However, they are insufficiently trained to solve community health challenges. In this paper, we present Pragati - a mobile-based Virtual Reality (VR) platform to train and educate ASHAs in rural Assam, India. Mobile based VR platform was chosen due to its ability to increase focus, attention and learnability among users. We developed 3 modules on maternal and child healthcare. Modules were presented via audio-visual interface in local Assamesse language. This paper presents the design of Pragati, user interactions, technology implementations and future directions of our study. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2017.