Gesture-based Interaction in Extreme Environments: Findings from a Mars-Analog Mission with a Finger-Worn Device

Vanderdonckt, Jean;Vatavu, Radu-Daniel;Attygalle, Nuwan;Baes, Loriane;Maddox, Romain;et.al.
(2026) ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interfaces (SUI ’26) — Location: Bari (10.October.2026)

Files

FingersGlove-SUI2026.pdf
  • Open Access
  • Adobe PDF
  • 2.77 MB
Download

Details

Authors
Show more
Abstract
Extreme environments, such as analog space stations, can impact the dexterity with which astronauts perform gestures for communication within the crew and for controlling interactive systems. To investigate this impact, we conducted a gesture elicitation study with eight analog astronauts, followed by several user performance and user experience evaluation sessions at the Mars Desert Research Station. Our findings reveal high gesture recall accuracy, short production times, and an overall favorable user experience across thirteen UEQ+ dimensions, from perceived efficiency to trust, which we interpret alongside the crew’s psychological mood during the two-week mission. Based on our findings, we derive design implications for gesture interaction in extreme environments.
Affiliations

Citations

  • APA
  • Chicago
  • FWB

Vanderdonckt, J., Vatavu, R.-D., Attygalle, N., Baes, L., Baltus, L., de Wergifosse, A., Hilgers, H., & Maddox, R. (2026). Gesture-based Interaction in Extreme Environments: Findings from a Mars-Analog Mission with a Finger-Worn Device. In Alvaro Quevedo, Susanne Schmidt, Ken Pfeuffer (ed.), Proceedings of SUI ’26. Association for Computing Machienry. https://doi.org/10.1145/3822518.3830049