Track Ball Research Articles

Behavioral Aspects of Text Editors

article Free Access Share on Behavioral Aspects of Text Editors Authors: David W. Embley University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NebraskaView Profile , George Nagy University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NebraskaView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM Computing SurveysVolume 13Issue 1March 1981 pp 33–70https://doi.org/10.1145/356835.356838Online:01 March 1981Publication History 61citation1,255DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations61Total Downloads1,255Last 12 Months18Last 6 weeks11 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

Interactive displays in tactical command and control

The tactical command and control systems environment has evolved to the state such that for any non-trivial scenario that can be postulated by mission analysts, the tactical commander will most likely become saturated by the sheer magnitude of the data and the options which can be made available to him. This situation prevails equally for all platforms—air, subsurface, surface and shore. Providing the tactical commander with the information he needs in a form which enhances his comprehension and facilitates his ability to make decisions in a timely and effective manner is the most important problem facing the command and control system architect and designer. It is universally agreed that the man-machine interaction in command and control is the critical parameter to be optimized. The ability of the command and control operator to interact directly with the tactical data base represents the single most important design requirement to achieve this optimization. With such a capability, an operator aided by an interactive display can access all elements of the tactical data base, can query the system to provide and display up-dated information on any aspect of the tactical environment, can evaluate a priori the probabilistic outcomes of choices of actions which are available and can modify easily the form of the information presented to concentrate on those parameters of greatest interest or concern. This is consistent with forecasts of command and control needs over the next decade which unanimously point to increased reliance on interactive processing and display to facilitate on-line, real-time data management and display, decision-making, data entry and reduction, simulation, resource allocation and deployment and overall force coordination and management. Trends in display technology and in the technologies supporting man-machine interactions point to increasing capabilities for interactive tactical display systems. Improved display devices, better engineered keyboards, light pens, track balls, etc., voice entry techniques, “smart” terminals with processing performed at the display and better hard-copy output represent major technological thrusts which support the projected needs of the tactical command and control system user. These developments range from hand-held interactive display terminals which could be used in the field by individual elements of the Army or Marine Corps to group viewing displays for application on shore or on platforms such as aircraft carriers. This paper describes some of these new directions in display technology with a view toward their expected impact upon the design and operational capability of tactical command and control systems.

THE EFFECTS OF TARGET DISTANCE AND DIRECTION ON MAXIMUM VELOCITY OF THE ROLLING BALL CONTROL.

Modern manual tracking and display systems transmit velocity, rather than position, of the rolling hall control into the display computer; in this manner, the necessity of continually updating control position is avoided, and a signal is transmitted to the computer only when the ball is moved. This presents difficulties to the system designer, however, insofar as the expected range of velocities for the rolling ball control has not been experimentally determined. In the present study, the maximum rate of surface travel for a 3-in.-diameter track ball is elicited for subjects tracking randomly-positioned stationary targets at varying distances and directions. Maximum ball velocities, presented in graphical and tabular form, are found to be functions of both target distance and direction, increasing almost linearly with distance.