COMPASS - Rotational Keyboard on Non-Touch Smartwatches

Explore an innovative text entry technique for non-touch smartwatches in this 21-minute conference talk from the CHI '17 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Discover COMPASS, a bezel-based system that positions multiple cursors on a circular keyboard, dynamically optimizing their locations to minimize rotational distance during typing. Learn how users can rotate the bezel to select keys with nearby cursors, enabling text input on devices without touchscreens. Examine the iterative design process and user studies that informed COMPASS's development, and review evaluation results showing participants achieved pick-up speeds of around 10 WPM, reaching 12.5 WPM after 90 minutes of practice. Consider the potential applications of this technique as an alternative text entry method for touch smartwatches in situations where touch input is unavailable, such as when wearing gloves.