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

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Abstract

This paper presents a study investigating how the performance of motion-impaired computer users in “point and click” tasks varies with target distance (A), target width (W), and force-feedback gravity well width (GWW). Six motion-impaired users performed “point and click” tasks across a range of values for A, W, and GWW. Times were observed to increase with A, and to decrease with W. Times also improved with GWW, and, with the addition of a gravity well, a greater improvement was observed for smaller targets than for bigger ones. It was found that Fitts’ Law gave a good description of behaviour for each value of GWW, and that gravity wells reduced the effect of task difficulty on performance. A model based on Fitts’ Law is proposed, which incorporates the effect of GWW on movement time. The model accounts for 88.8% of the variance in the observed data.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the volunteers and staff of the Papworth Trust. We also wish to thank one particular reviewer for a detailed and helpful review. This work is funded by the Canadian Cambridge Trust, NSERC, and the EPSRC.

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Correspondence to Faustina Hwang.

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Hwang, F., Keates, S., Langdon, P. et al. Movement time for motion-impaired users assisted by force-feedback: effects of movement amplitude, target width, and gravity well width. Univ Access Inf Soc 4, 85–95 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-005-0114-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-005-0114-5

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