Movement characteristics using a mouse with tactile and force feedback

A multi-modal mouse incorporating tactile and force feedback was tested in a target selection task with 12 subjects . Four feedback conditions (normal , tactile , force , tactile 1 force) were combined with three target distances and three target sizes . We found significant reductions in the overall movement times and in the time to stop the cursor after entering the target . This ef fect was particularly pronounced for the tactile condition and for small targets . However , compared to normal feedback , error rates were higher with the tactile and tactile 1 force conditions . The motorsensory bandwidth calculated using Fitt’s law , normalized for spatial variability , was highest in the presence of tactile feedback (6 . 4 bits / s) . This was followed by tactile 1 force (6 . 2 bits / s) , normal (5 . 9 bits / s) , and force feedback (5 . 8 bits / s) . These results indicate that modifying a mouse to include tactile feedback , and to a lesser extent , force feedback , of fers performance advantages in target selection tasks . ÷ 1996 Academic Press Limited