An Evaluation of Different Input Techniques for a Tabletop Display Using Fitts’ Reciprocal Tapping Task

User performance with a tabletop display was tested using touch-based and mouse-based interaction in a traditional pointing task. Dependent variables were throughput, accuracy, and movement time. In a study with 12 participants, touch had a better performance with average throughput of 5.53 bps in comparison to 3.83 bps for mouse. Touch also had a lower movement time on average, ranging from 403 ms to 1051 ms vs. mouse input that ranged from 607 ms to 1323 ms. Error rates were lower for the mouse at 2.1%, compared to 9.8% for touch. The high error rates using touch were substantially due to problems in selecting small targets with the finger. It is argued that overall, touch input is a preferred and efficient input technique for tabletop displays.