Grasping and Attached Mode in Human-Computer Interaction in the Study of Mouse Substitution

Abstract

Some disabilities caused by sensory malfunction, accident, or congenital disorder could cause people difficulty in grasping the computer mouse. A well-known substitute uses an inertial sensor to monitor the body’s orientation. This paper evaluates the efficiency and effectiveness of different methods of holding the sensor. There are two modes of holding the sensor, the grasping mode and the attached mode; we also evaluate a mouse as a baseline. The attached mode works by placing the sensor on the back of user’s hand. The quantitative and qualitative evaluation procedure is based on ISO/TS 9241 part 411: Ergonomics of human-system interaction standard. The test consists of four levels of difficulty and indicates that the throughput and task completion times were not statistically different between grasping and attached mode. We also found that grasping mode and attached mode did not show significantly statistical differences in comfort and fatigue based on the questionnaires. The results also suggest that the orientation of the hand used in grasping and attached modes is suitable only for lower-impact computer use.