Investigating Clutching Interactions for Touchless Medical Imaging Systems

Touchless input could transform clinical activity by allowing health professionals direct control over medical imaging systems in a sterile manner. Currently, users face the issues of being unable to directly manipulate imaging in aseptic environments, as well as needing to touch shared surfaces in other hospital areas. Unintended input is a key challenge for touchless interaction and could be especially disruptive in medical contexts. We evaluated four clutching techniques with 34 health professionals, measuring interaction performance and interviewing them to obtain insight into their views on clutching, and touchless control of medical imaging. As well as exploring the performance of the different clutching techniques, our analysis revealed an appetite for reliable touchless interfaces, a strong desire to reduce shared surface contact, and suggested potential improvements such as combined authentication and touchless control. Our findings can inform the development of novel touchless medical systems and identify challenges for future research.