Rebo: A remote control with strokes

This paper describes a new remote control operable with stroking its surface. There are lots of remote controls in our houses such as TV remote controls, air conditioner remote controls, and so on. However, when we use a remote control, we need to look at both the fingers and an appliance that we want to control. It is not highly problematic for young people, but elderly people have a difficulty in operating remote controls. It will be comfortable for people to use a remote control without looking at the fingers. In this study, we propose a remote control, Rebo, operable with stroking its surface and apply to a TV interaction system. The developed remote control has three advantages; (1) familiarity, (2) function awareness, and (3) stroke operation. Those enable users to have familiarity with it, to easily notice its functions, and to use it without looking at the fingers. The feature of Rebo in comparison with conventional button-based remote controls is the tolerance for mistakes because it enables unfamiliar users to home electric appliances to use it casually without fear of mistakes and unexpected behavior.