A comparison of techniques for cross-device interaction from mobile devices to large displays

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in cross-device interaction research involving mobile computing. We contribute to this research with a comparative study of four interaction techniques for moving information from a mobile device to a large display. The four techniques (Pinch, Swipe, Throw, and Tilt) were compared through a laboratory experiment with 53 participants, measuring their effectiveness, efficiency and error size. Findings from the experiment revealed that the Swipe technique performed best on all measures. In terms of effectiveness, the Tilt technique performed the worst, and especially so with small targets. In terms of efficiency and error size, the Pinch technique was the slowest and also the most imprecise. We also found that target size mattered considerably for all techniques, confirming previous research. Based on our findings we discuss why the individual techniques performed as observed, and discuss implications for using mobile devices in cross-device interaction design.