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. 2021 Jul 5;21(13):4594.
doi: 10.3390/s21134594.

Tactowel: A Subtle Sports Performance Display for Giving Real-Time Performance Feedback in Tennis

Hayati Havlucu  1 , Aykut Coşkun  1 , Oğuzhan Özcan  1
Affiliations

Tactowel: A Subtle Sports Performance Display for Giving Real-Time Performance Feedback in Tennis

Hayati Havlucu et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Sports technology enhances athletes' performance by providing feedback. However, interaction techniques of current devices may overwhelm athletes with excessive information or distract them from their performance. Despite previous research, design knowledge on how to interact with these devices to prevent such occasions are scarce. To address this gap, we introduce subtle displays as real-time sports performance feedback output devices that unobtrusively present low-resolution information. In this paper, we conceptualize and apply subtle displays to tennis by designing Tactowel, a texture changing sports towel. We evaluate Tactowel through a remote user study with 8 professional tennis players, in which they experience, compare and discuss Tactowel. Our results suggest subtle displays could prevent overwhelming and distracting athletes through three distinct design strategies: (1) Restricting the use excluding duration of performance, (2) using the available routines and interactions, and (3) giving an overall abstraction through tangible interaction. We discuss these results to present design implications and future considerations for designing subtle displays.

Keywords: ambient devices; sports feedback; subtle displays; tangible interaction; tennis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The conceptual prototype of Tactowel. Soft and hard textures are represented by two different towels. The soft Tactowel (left) is 40% bamboo-60% cotton mix bath towel and the hard Tactowel (right) is 100% cotton peshtemal. The green hard case is a dummy device that contains LED for participants to believe it is fully-functioning.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Screenshots from TennisKeeper showing (1) shot angle and speed, (2) steps, distance, hearth-rate and calories, (3) percentage of shot types, and (4) quantity of shot types.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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