A Fitts Law comparison of eye tracking and manual input in the selection of visual targets

ABSTRACT

We present a Fitts' Law evaluation of a number of eye tracking and manual input devices in the selection of large visual targets. We compared performance of two eye tracking techniques, manual click and dwell time click, with that of mouse and stylus. Results show eye tracking with manual click outperformed the mouse by 16%, with dwell time click 46% faster. However, eye tracking conditions suffered a high error rate of 11.7% for manual click and 43% for dwell time click conditions. After Welford correction eye tracking still appears to outperform manual input, with IPs of 13.8 bits/s for dwell time click, and 10.9 bits/s for manual click. Eye tracking with manual click provides the best tradeoff between speed and accuracy, and was preferred by 50% of participants. Mouse and stylus had IPs of 4.7 and 4.2 respectively. However, their low error rate of 5% makes these techniques more suitable for refined target selection.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Input devices and strategies (e.g., mouse, touchscreen)

General Terms:
Human Factors

Keywords:
Fitts Law, attentive user interfaces., eye tracking, focus selection, input devices