Force Feedback Magnitude Effects on User's Performance during Target Acquisition: A Pilot Study

Only a few guidelines exist for defining the force properties in a haptic interface; as a consequence, they are mostly determined in an ad-hoc manner. We investigate how the user's performance changes during target acquisition when increasing force amplitudes are applied. Using a simple multidirectional point-select task, forces with variable amplitudes are applied to the user while traversing from one target to the other. We find that the user’s performance suddenly degrades significantly, rather than decreasing progressively. This finding may be important for defining guidelines which forces may and may not be applied to a user in order to allow the haptic feedback to improve, rather than deteriorate the user’s performance.