Understanding the Design Space of Mouth Microgestures

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As wearable devices move toward the face (i.e. smart earbuds, glasses), there is an increasing need to facilitate intuitive interactions with these devices. Current sensing techniques can already detect many mouth-based gestures; however, users’ preferences of these gestures are not fully understood. In this paper, we investigate the design space and usability of mouth-based microgestures. We first conducted brainstorming sessions (N=16) and compiled an extensive set of 86 user-defined gestures. Then, with an online survey (N=50), we assessed the physical and mental demand of our gesture set and identified a subset of 14 gestures that can be performed easily and naturally. Finally, we conducted a remote Wizard-of-Oz usability study (N=11) mapping gestures to various daily smartphone operations under a sitting and walking context. From these studies, we develop a taxonomy for mouth gestures, finalize a practical gesture set for common applications, and provide design guidelines for future mouth-based gesture interactions.