Exploratory evaluation of a planar foot-operated cursor-positioning device

ABSTRACT

The use of feet instead of hands to perform workstation cursor-positioning and related functions has been the subject of an on-going investigation. In the exploratory study reported here, a particular foot-operated device, the planar slide mole, was assessed against a mouse in a target-selection task. The study showed that novices can learn to select fairly small targets using a mole; for a target size of 1/8″ square, the response time equaled that of the mouse when keyboard homing time was taken into account.

REFERENCES

• 1: G. Pearson , M. Weiser, Of moles and men: the design of foot controls for workstations, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.333-339, April 13-17, 1986, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
• 2: Pearson, Glenn, and Weiser, Mark Moles: A Class of Foot-Operated Cursor-Positioning Devices, CS-TR-1658 /UMIACS-TR-86-1 l, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, Feb. 1986, 41 pp.
• 3: Brown & Co., Inc, manufacturers, P.O. Box 2443, So. Hamilton, MA 01982.
• 4: Stuart K. Card , Thomas P. Moran , Allen Newell, The keystroke-level model for user performance time with interactive systems, Communications of the ACM, v.23 n.7, p.396-410, July 1980 [doi>10.1145/358886.358895]
• 5: Stuart K. Card , Allen Newell , Thomas P. Moran, The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ, 1983
• 6: Pearson, Glenn, and Weiser, Mark Exploratory Evaluations of Two Versions of a Foot-Operated Cursor-Positioning Device in a Target-Selection Task, 1987, submitted.
• 7: English,W., Engelbart,D., and Berman,M. Display-Selection Techniques for Text Manipulation, IEEE Trans. on Human. Factors in Electronics (now Trans. on Sys., Man, and Cybernetics), HFE-8 (1), March ~67, pp. 5-15.
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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
      H.1.2 User/Machine Systems
          Subjects: Human factors

Additional Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.4 INPUT/OUTPUT AND DATA COMMUNICATIONS

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.6 Methodology and Techniques
          Subjects: Interaction techniques

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Performance