Eliciting a gesture vocabulary for dyadic collaboration under protective equipment

Details

Supervisors

Vanderdonckt, Jean

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [60] en sciences de gestion

Abstract

enIn various situations, two people must collaborate on a task without being able to speak. Hands are the natural remaining channel, but existing signal codes are designed top-down and assume a fixed signaller and receiver rather than a pair that alternates roles. This work applies the gesture elicitation method to that case. Participants proposed gestures for a set of generic dyadic referents while wearing gloves, goggles and ear defenders. Agreement is high only where a cultural convention already exists, and it works against producibility: the best-agreed signs isolate a thumb or a finger, which a glove degrades. Most referents nonetheless resolve into a candidate vocabulary. Because proposals came from individuals, this measures convergence between senders, a starting point for a dyad rather than the code a dyad would settle on.