The effects of latency and motion blur on touch screen user experience

Abstract

Touch interfaces are designed to be metaphors for physically manipulating virtual objects. However, this direct manipulation illusion is broken by the nonidealities of the device. We decouple and show the impact of touch-to-display latency and motion blur on the user experience of a touch system. Using a custom device, we achieve latencies down to ~1 ms, with frame rates up to 1000 Hz. Motion blur is reduced independently of frame rate using synchronized display modulation. Optimizing these metrics yields a dramatic improvement in the user experience, demonstrating the opportunity for higher performance in touch devices.