Effects of wearing chemical protective clothing on text entry when using wearable input devices

摘要

Wearable computers allow users the freedom to work in any environment including those that may require protective clothing, Past research has shown that protective clothing impedes performance on manual dexterity tasks. Little information exists; however, regarding how protective clothing affects task performance with wearable input devices, A study was conducted to determine the effects of glove thickness and mask use on task performance and user preference. Sixteen male participants used both a wearable mouse and touch pad to enter text. Task completion times were 9% slower when participants wore 2.5-mil versus 7-mil protective gloves, suggesting that thin protective gloves are more suitable than thicker gloves when using wearable input devices. Mask use did not affect task performance. Subjective ratings of difficulty, confidence, and preference provided strong support for the use of a touch pad device rather than a mouse. Potential applications of this research include design guidelines for development of wearable input devices that are compatible with chemical protective clothing.