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From: laforce@krypton.arc.nasa.gov (Soren LaForce)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Touchscreens
Message-ID: <1991Jun13.164856.1006@news.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 13 Jun 91 14:30:58 GMT
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In article <8435@awdprime.UUCP>, jon@kitty.austin.ibm.com (Werner) writes...
>Are there any papers written dealing with the use of touchscreens as an
>alternate input device in environments which don not have enough desk 
>space for a keyboard or a mouse? 
>-- 


I don't know of any papers.  There is an army/nasa project at ames research
(Mountain View, ca) called CSRFD (Crew Station Research and Dev. Facility)
that uses touch screens in a "glass cockpit" helicoptor simulator.  You may
be able to get some info from them.

My experience with CSRDF was not too impressive.  The "buttons" were fairly
large, about 1"x1.25" (this was a few years ago so the details are a bit
fuzzy...).  The problem I had was getting the touch screen to respond.  I
don't think it was paralax, in any event, given the "buttton" size it
SHOULDN'T have been paralax.  I was told that the "button" location was 
set in software, and could be changed for different configurations.  
Perhaps the "buttons" were not configured correctly.  It is also possible 
that the contacts in the screen were not performing well.

I was not involved with the project and don't know enough to form 
a really solid opinion.

On the other hand, it would be very dificult for someone to sell me a touch
screen device.

Non-technical complaints were:  had to remove hands from controls to 
operate, could hit wrong button too easily, had to take attention away from
the out the window display to select, etc.

Some of the problems would not apply to a computer terminal, i.e. the 
touch screen is not in conflict with the out the window display (remember,
I saw this stuff in a helicoptor simulator).  Some problems would carry 
over, hands moving from controls/keyboard to screen.

Did anyone else notice that when Mac users get proficent, they stop using
the mouse/trackball and use the KEYBOARD!  I think there is a message 
here...



--Soren            laforce@krypton.arc.nasa.gov