Towards Input Device Satisfaction Through Hand Anthropometry

TL;DR

This study collected Filipino hand anthropometric data to assess keyboard suitability, developed an automated measurement method, and found that certain hand sizes may not comfortably reach standard key combinations.

Contribution

It introduces a Filipino-specific anthropometric dataset, an automated hand measurement technique, and analyzes keyboard fit for the local population.

Findings

Members with hand dimensions below 75th and above 99th percentiles may struggle with key reach.

Automated measurement closely matches manual measurements with minimal error.

Data can inform design of input devices and other human-centered tools.

Abstract

We collected the hand anthropometric data of 91 respondents to come up with a Filipino-based measurement to determine the suitability of an input device for a digital equipment, the standard PC keyboard. For correlation purposes, we also collected other relevant information like age, height, province of origin, and gender, among others. We computed the percentiles for each finger to classify various finger dimensions and identify length-specific anthropometric cut-points. We compared the percentiles of each finger dimension against the actual length of the longest key combinations when correct finger placement is used for typing, to determine whether the standard PC keyboard is fit for use by our sampled population. Our analysis shows that the members of the population with hand dimensions at extended position below 75th percentile and at 99th percentile are the ones who would most likely not reach the longest key combination for the left and the right hands, respectively. Using machine vision and image processing techniques, we automated the anthropometric process and compared the accuracy of its measurements to that of manual process'. We compared the measurement generated by our automated anthropometric process with the measurements using the manual one and we found out that they have a very minimal absolute difference. The data collected from this study could be used in other studies such as determining a good design for mobile and other handheld devices, or input devices other than keyboard. The automated method that we developed could be used to easily measure hand dimensions given a digital image of the hand and could be extended for measuring the entire human body for various other applications.