This paper describes ongoing work on interfaces for viewing video on handheld devices. Motivation is provided using a scenario in which a bus rider scans a downloaded news show to find one story to watch, and then navigates to a frame that displays a weather map. The iPhone and iPod inspired this paper.

The MobileZoomSlider uses the vertical position of a pen stroke to set the granularity of navigation. A ScrollWheel is the basis for different approaches involving position and speed of stroking, or a combination of the two. The ElasticSlider uses the distance of the start of pen movement from what they term the thumb of the slider to determine the speed of skimming. The platform is a Dell Axim X51v personal digital assistant (PDA), running Windows Mobile, and using the open-source Core Pocket Media Player. The developers studied and compared the interfaces with actual users, measuring performance (how well users accomplished their goals) and relative satisfaction (how users rated the experiences). The paper closes with plans for future work, including testing in real-world conditions and using the interfaces with a finger, as opposed to a pen.

By the authors’ own admission, this is an overview, with details on the implementation and the studies available in papers listed in the reference section. The paper, which includes a description of static media browsing on the iPhone and iPod as an insert, does an excellent job. I would like to try all of these gadgets, and I would not have predicted this reaction before reading this paper.