Design Issues for an Assistance Service with Force Feedback

This article analyzes and discusses problems related to the design of a force-feedback assistance service (FAS) for human-computer interfaces. FAS is a service which can be applied to human-computer interfaces which utilize a force-feedback pointing device, which guides the user’s hand in order to facilitate direct manipulation tasks: point, select, move and resize. The FAS uses artificial neural networks to adapt, in real-time, to the user’s task. In order to facilitate the design and understanding of the FAS, a physical metaphor was developed: that of the canter. It utilizes the inherent elements of classical direct manipulation, supplemented by metaphoric units to defme forces.