Evaluation of human pointing movement characteristics for improvement of human computer interface

Human computer interface (HCI) is often regarded as the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design and several other fields of study. In order to improve the usability of HCI, investigation of the interaction between human and computers is an important issue. In present study, we use a pointing movement experimental device with visual feedback control function which developed in our companion research to investigate the human movement characteristics. Fitts' law is a successful model of human movement that predicts the time required to rapidly move to a target. According to Fitts' law, the relationship between the movement time (MT) and the index of difficulty (ID) can be demonstrated as a linear function. Here, we designed a series of rectangle boxes as using in Fitts' study as pointing stimuli. Ten subjects were asked to do pointing movement with different visual feedback conditions. The findings of present study suggest that the pointing performance was not only depending on the size of targets but also the quantity of visual feedback information. Therefore, both visual feedback and target size need to considered for HCI design.