In “User-defined gestures for connecting mobile phones,” Christian Kray, Daniel Nesbitt and John Dawson at Nwcastle University, UK, and Michael Rohs, Deutsche Telekom Laboratories investigate the question whether gesturing with a mobile phone can help to perform complex tasks involving two devices.

In a user study participants were asked to spontaneously produce gestures with their phone to trigger a set of different activities and device configurations: phone-to-phone, phone-to-tabletop, and phone to public display.From this they have concluded the use of gesture recognition in mobile phones will be easily understood by phone users, but that certain device configurations and activities may be well suited for gesture control.