Force-feedback improves performance for steering and combined steering-targeting tasks

The introduction of a force-feedback mouse, which provides high fidelity tactile cues via force output, may represent a long-awaited technological breakthrough in pointing device designs. However, there have been few studies examining the benefits of force-feedback for the desktop computer human interface. Ten adults performed eighty steering tasks, where the participants moved the cursor through a small tunnel with varying indices of difficulty using a conventional and force-feedback mouse. For the force-feedback condition, the mouse displayed force that pulled the cursor to the center of the tunnel. The tasks required both horizontal and vertical screen movements of the cursor. Movement times were on average 52 percent faster during the force-feedback condition when compared to the conventional mouse. Furthermore, for the conventional mouse vertical movements required more time to complete than horizontal screen movements. Another ten adults completed a combined steering and targeting task, where the participants navigated through a tunnel and then clicked a small box at the end of the tunnel. Again, force-feedback improved times to complete the task. Although movement times were slower than the pure steering task, the steering index of difficulty dominated the steering-targeting relationship. These results further support that human computer interfaces benefit from the additional sensory input of tactile cues to the human user.