Effects of wearing chemical protective clothing on text entry when using wearable input devices

Wearable computers allow users the freedom to work in any environment including those that may require protective clothing. Past research has shown that protective clothing impedes performance on manual dexterity tasks. Little information exists; however, regarding how protective clothing affects task performance with wearable input devices. A study was conducted to determine the effects of glove thickness and mask use on task performance and user preference. Sixteen male participants used both a wearable mouse and touch pad to enter text. Task completion times were 9% slower when participants wore 25-mil versus 7-mil protective gloves, suggesting that thin protective gloves are more suitable than thicker gloves when using wearable input devices. Mask use did not affect task performance. Subjective ratings of difficulty, confidence, and preference provided strong support for the use of a touch pad device rather than a mouse. Potential applications of this research include design guidelines for development of wearable input devices that are compatible with chemical protective clothing. Protective clothing is commonly worn in industrial settings, but little is known about its impacts on task performance with wearable computers. This study describes some of the factors that must be considered in the design of wearable input devices that can be used effectively when wearing protective clothing.