Seeing virtual while acting real: Visual display and strategy effects on the time and precision of eye-hand coordination

Abstract

Effects of different visual displays on the time and precision of bare-handed or tool-mediated eye-hand coordination were investigated in a pick-and-place-task with complete novices. All of them scored well above average in spatial perspective taking ability and performed the task with their dominant hand. Two groups of novices, four men and four women in each group, had to place a small object in a precise order on the centre of five targets on a Real-world Action Field (RAF), as swiftly as possible and as precisely as possible, using a tool or not (control). Each individual session consisted of four visual display conditions. The order of conditions was counterbalanced between individuals and sessions. Subjects looked at what their hands were doing 1) directly in front of them (“natural” top-down view) 2) in top-down 2D fisheye view 3) in top-down undistorted 2D view or 4) in 3D stereoscopic top-down view (head-mounted OCULUS DK 2). It was made sure that object movements in all image conditions matched the real-world movements in time and space. One group was looking at the 2D images with the monitor positioned sideways (sub-optimal); the other group was looking at the monitor placed straight ahead of them (near-optimal). All image viewing conditions had significantly detrimental effects on time (seconds) and precision (pixels) of task execution when compared with “natural” direct viewing. More importantly, we find significant trade-offs between time and precision between and within groups, and significant interactions between viewing conditions and manipulation conditions. The results shed new light on controversial findings relative to visual display effects on eye-hand coordination, and lead to conclude that differences in camera systems and adaptive strategies of novices are likely to explain these.

Towards Expert-Based Speed–Precision Control in Early Simulator Training for Novice Surgeons

“…Data relative to the evolution of individual performance measures, relative to task speed and precision, were automatically monitored and recorded, using a specifically designed experimental simulator platform for image-based analysis of performance data relative to the time and precision of hand-tool movements in a five-step computer controlled pick-and-place task. The technical aspects of this platform, which was used in several experimental studies published elsewhere, are described in detail, with images and illustrations, in previous work [4][5][6][7][8].…”

“…How expert benchmark statistics may be exploited for automatic performance control is explained.will help the trainee gain proficiency at the task at hand, then operators will not be able to understand the message given by the system, and the latter will have failed its purpose altogether. Guidelines for user interface design and feedback procedures in simulator training contexts do not yet exist, but they can and should be worked out and tested [2,3].Relevant performance metrics [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] are essential to the development of surgical simulator systems for optimal independent training. The presentation of such metrics to the user, in a way that boosts independent learning by producing a measurable skill improvement, is the most important aspect of an effective training system [11].…”

Effects of 2D and 3D image views on hand movement trajectories in the surgeon’s peri-personal space in a computer controlled simulator environment

“…The average individual data from each experimental condition were committed to four-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the basis of a Cartesian design plan P 8 × V 3 × M 2 × T 6 × S 2 , with eight participants (P 8 ), three levels of viewing (V 3 ) with direct real vs 2D fisheye vs virtual 3D, two levels of movement (M 2 ) with constrained vs unconstrained, six levels of the trajectory segment location factor (T 6 ), and two levels of the session factor (S 2 ). With this design plan, we have a total of 576 means for the dependent variable lateral (Batmaz et al, 2017). In this study here, we focus on from-target-to-target movement precision (in pixels) where the shortest distance between targets, indicated by the white lines in Figure 2, serves as reference trajectory.…”

“…In surgery, what matters most is precision. In our previous work (Batmaz et al, 2016a(Batmaz et al, , 2016b(Batmaz et al, , 2017 we had focussed on studying the effects of different viewing modalities on positional accuracy, i.e. the precision with which an object was placed on a reference target in the real-world action field (RAF) of our simulator environment EXCALIBUR.…”

Combining Visual Contrast Information with Sound Can Produce Faster Decisions

“…Since these early and seminal psychophysical studies, further research has shown that sound information impacts information processing by other senses, including vision, and may considerably influence our decisions in response to signals we receive [9,10]. The human brain's capacity to exploit combined information of visual contrast and sound in motor response behavior [11] has important implications in the context of a variety of operator tasks and in the context of human-computer interaction systems where optimal motor performance is critical [12][13][14]. The goal of this study here was to bring to the forefront the ability of individuals to effectively use visual contrast and sound for making faster perceptual decisions by taking into account the well-documented capacity of the human perceptual system to extract subjective cues of relative depth from planar (2D) object configurations on the basis of physical variations in luminance contrast [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”