Cursor measures for motion-impaired computer users

Abstract

Point and click" interactions remain one of the key features of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). People with motion-impairments, however, can often have difficulty with accurate control of standard pointing devices. This paper discusses work that aims to reveal the nature of these difficulties through analyses that consider the cursor's path of movement. A range of potential cursor measures was applied, and a number of them were found to be significant in capturing the differences between able-bodied users and motion-impaired users, as well as the differences between a haptic force feedback condition and a control condition. The cursor measures found in the literature, however, do not make up a comprehensive list, but provide a starting point for analysing cursor movements more completely. Six new cursor characteristics for motion-impaired users are introduced to capture aspects of cursor movement different from those already proposed.

Movement time for motion-impaired users assisted by force-feedback: effects of movement amplitude, target width, and gravity well width

“…3 of the previous section, even with the adjustment for effective target width, it would appear that there is still a requirement for the error rate to be reasonably low. Compared with able-bodied users, however, motion-impaired users exhibit a greater tendency to click outside the target, and can average more than one click outside the target per trial [9]. In this case, the error rate as defined in ISO 9241-9 would be 100%, and MT and TP would only measure how quickly users can click in an area outside the target.…”

“…If a click occurred when the cursor was outside the target, the user had to correct the position of the cursor and click again. Consequently, there were no ''error'' trials as defined in ISO 9241-9 [5], but the number of clicks per trial occurring outside the target served as a measure of error [9]. The time to complete each trial, the number of mouse clicks in each trial, and the cursor position throughout the trial were automatically logged by the software.…”

“…Short breaks were taken between sequences, and for sessions lasting over 1 h, a longer break was taken halfway through the session. Figure 3 shows the overall mean task completion times and errors for each user, where errors are measured as the number of clicks per trial occurring outside the target [9]. Performance varied considerably among the users, reflecting their wide range of physical capabilities, with mean times and errors over all conditions ranging from 1.1 s to 4.8 s and from 0.04 clicks/trial to 0.38 clicks/trial, respectively.…”

Does Touch Matter?: The Effects of Haptic Visualization on Human Performance, Behavior and Perception

“…Haptic feedback has the potential to provide redundant feedback, which would greatly improve the saliency of signals, as well as provide a unique feedback as a new signal to reinforce or improve user understanding (Robles-de-la-Torre, 2006). Haptic technology has found many successful applications such as surgical simulation (e.g., Basdogan et al, 2004;Chebbi et al, 2005), medical training (e.g., Coles, Meglan, & John, 2011), virtual prototyping (Zhu & Lee, 2004), scientific visualization (e.g., Lawrence, Pao, Lee, & Novoselov, 2004), and assistive technology for users with visual impairments (e.g., Amemiya & Sugiyama, 2010) or motionimpaired users (e.g., Keates, Hwang, Langdon, Clarkson, & Robinson, 2002). Many studies have also shown that haptic feedback can improve user performance in various tasks (Dinse et al, 2005;Richard & Coiffet, 1995), enhance the sense of sharing and each user's perception on his or her partner's actions (Hubbold, 2002), and increase perceived togetherness (Basdogan, Ho, Srinivasan, & Slater, 2000;Sallnas, RassmusGröhn, & Sjöström, 2000;Slater, Sadagic, Usoh, & Schroeder, 2000).…”

Accuracy and frequency analysis of multitouch interfaces for individuals with Parkinsonian and essential hand tremor

“…Even basic pointer navigation may turn into an arduous task, and concentrating on performing targeting tasks can cause exhaustion. Some work has been conducted in the area of filtering and analysis of tremor, most of which is software based [4,8,16], with a smaller amount that uses a hardware approach [9]. These works involved the testing of a mouse or mouse-like devices.…”