Section: New Results

Human limits in small unidirectional mouse movements

Participants : Jonathan Aceituno [correspondant] , Géry Casiez, Nicolas Roussel.

Computer mouse sensors keep increasing in resolution. The smallest displacement they can detect gets smaller, but little is known on our ability to control such small movements. Small target acquisition has been previously tackled, but the findings do not apply to the problem of finding the useful resolution of a user with a mouse, which corresponds to the smallest displacement (s)he can reliably produce with that device. In [16] , we detail this definition and provide an associated experimental protocol to measure the useful resolution. We then report on the results of a study suggesting that high-end mice are not likely to be used to their full potential. We further comment on the different strategies used by participants to acheive best performance, and derive implications for user interfaces.