Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Human manual dexterity is remarkable: consider the speed and precision with which our hand and fingers can reach for an object, grasp it, and manipulate it. In general, people have the phenomenal ability to develop dexterous skills for activities such as playing musical instruments, specialized tasks in industry and healthcare, and crafts like knitting. Interacting with computers also requires dexterity, even a computer mouse requires some skill development before feeling automatic and transparent: consider how awkward it is to use another computer with different mouse settings and hardware. Professional gamers provide extreme examples of input device dexterity, suggesting there remains an untapped potential for all computer users. My long-term research goal is to discover methods to make interactions with current and future computational systems more powerful and nuanced. I believe people can master more complex interactions when they match innate ability and provide benefits like increased performance and "flow". Yet, manual dexterity is remarkably underexplored in the context of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), leading to the open question: Can hand dexterity skills be utilized and improved with novel interaction techniques? The proposed research program tackles this question through three objectives: study extreme forms of manual dexterity; invent new interaction techniques that leverage increased manual dexterity; and develop training methods for skills that require manual dexterity. These objectives will be pursued across three streams of research topics, each focused on a specific style of input or application. The streams progress from a conventional computing context to a future computing paradigm called spatial augmented reality (SAR) where multiple projector-camera units place interactive digital pixels on existing 3D objects and surfaces. This will train 2 PhDs and 3 Master's students in core HCI research skills by inventing the future of HCI in a cutting-edge technology facility. The results will contribute a greater understanding for the potential of dexterous interaction based on human needs and capabilities, and ultimately, the invention of new interaction techniques and methods, leading a path towards commercial applications . Novel interaction techniques and input devices that fully leverage manual dexterity, with complementary training methods so people can unlock that potential, could increase user performance and promote a sense of mastery in many tasks and domains. These results, especially an ambitious topic to use SAR to train dexterous skills for hand-tool woodworking as a proxy for general forms of skilled labour, relate directly to Canada's critical need to train skilled workers. About 700,000 skilled workers are retiring before 2028 and Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters identified "building a skilled workforce" as the top theme to prepare Canada for a new era of manufacturing growth.