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The smallest target size for a comfortable pointing in freehand space: human pointing precision of freehand interaction

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Abstract

Designing interfaces that suit human pointing precision in freehand space can improve the smoothness and naturalness of gestural interaction. However, only few studies focus on the proper pointing precision for a comfortable target acquisition to provide suggestions for user-centered interface design for such kind of techniques. This paper presents work on studying and estimating human pointing precision in three separate dimensions in different motion ranges when performing precision movement in freehand space. Human pointing precision was estimated to be about 1.67–3.0 cm within a motion range about 40 cm. Participants’ performances for small target acquisition were close in horizontal and vertical dimensions, but worst in depth dimension. The effects of task amplitude on the pointing precision became prominent in depth dimension, and minimal in vertical dimension. The work also indicated that precise movement of freehand induced side effect to make hand stiff and gesture like “putting forward” physically exhausting, especially to reach small targets. This work provides a deeper insight into freehand interaction and contributes to the user-centered design of freehand-like interfaces.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by Science and Technology Planning Projects of Guangdong Province of China (Nos. 2011A010801005, 2010A080402015, 2012B061700102, and 2014A010104005) and the Central Universities of South China University of Technology under Grant (No. 2015 ZZ030).

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  1. South China University of Technology, Wushan Road No. 381, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China

    Zhuorui Liang, Xiangmin Xu & Shaolin Zhou

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  1. Zhuorui Liang
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Correspondence to Xiangmin Xu.

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Liang, Z., Xu, X. & Zhou, S. The smallest target size for a comfortable pointing in freehand space: human pointing precision of freehand interaction. Univ Access Inf Soc 16, 381–393 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-016-0464-1

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