Usability Evaluation of Touchless Mouse Based on Infrared Proximity Sensing
Young Sam Ryu, Do Hyong Koh, Dongseok Ryu, and Dugan Um
Journal of Usability Studies, Volume 7, Issue 1, November 2011, pp. 31 - 39
Article Contents
Conclusion
In this study, the usability of the T-less mouse was evaluated. The T-less mouse was compared to a conventional mouse. Completion time, throughput, and number of errors were used to objectively measure the efficiency and accuracy of the T-less mouse in a multi-directional Fitts’ Law task. In addition, subjective measurements including user satisfaction were assessed. In summary:
- Using a T-less mouse with finger input mode is about three times slower than using a conventional mouse.
- The number of errors with a T-less mouse with finger input mode was not significantly higher than that with conventional mouse.
- The performance of a T-less mouse in terms of throughput is inferior to that of a conventional mouse; thus, continuous improvement is necessary.
- The participants agreed that the T-less mouse could be an alternative to a conventional mouse when users have to operate computers with a wet, oily, or dusty hand in environments such as hospital operation rooms, clean rooms, petroleum plants, combat environments, etc.
Future Research
In this study, we used a two second dwell-time as the definition of selection (click) for the T-less mouse. An intuitive and effective selection (click) scheme could be developed for the finger input mode of the T-less mouse. Usability evaluation of the palm input mode should be performed as well, along with effective selection schemes. In order to overcome the input speed issue, a faster frame rate of the T-less mouse is needed. Also, usability testing in an outdoor environment and testing with users wearing gloves should be conducted to increase ecological validity of the findings.
The slow performance of T-less mouse could be the combination of both human and technical limitations. Because we used the dwell-time of two seconds as the clicking method, the longer completion times by participants who had problems of maintaining their finger in steady position were inevitable. In this study, we used a constant speed for cursor movement for the T-less mouse. However, finding the optimized speed or accelerated speed for cursor movement could increase the performance of T-less mouse and should be investigated.