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From: jad@beta.UUCP (John De Vries)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Input Devices (was: Re: Issues of comp.cog-eng)
Message-ID: <12785@beta.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Nov-87 23:41:16 EST
Article-I.D.: beta.12785
Posted: Mon Nov 23 23:41:16 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Nov-87 23:23:10 EST
References: <19@gollum.Columbia.NCR.COM> <1014@zodiac.UUCP>
Reply-To: jad@lanl.gov.ARPA (John De Vries)
Organization: Los Alamos Natl. Labs, Los Alamos, NM
Lines: 59

In article <1014@zodiac.UUCP> klee@klee.UUCP (Ken Lee) writes:
>In article <19@gollum.Columbia.NCR.COM> rolandi@gollum.UUCP () writes:
>>Meanwhile, can anyone give me some pointers to research that examines
>>the relative merits of touchscreens versus "mice".
>
>As for your question, I think the consensus is that "it depends" on the
>application.  Touchscreens are generally unsuitable for intensive applications
>because:

[the following is somewhat colored by the applications we have
 developed in the CEDAR team here at Los Alamos]

>1.  excessive fatigue (holding your arm up all day)

Seems more intermittent than "all day" to me.  I will admit, however,
that a mouse takes substantially less effort for "pointing" exercises.
In fact, I find that a trackball takes even less effort than a mouse.

However, back to the charter of this newsgroup, we have observed that
people find the action of pointing is extremely natural.

>2.  your finger hides the thing you're pointing at

When just "pushing" relatively low-resolution buttons, this isn't much
of a problem.  However, one of our applications involved designating a
route on a map.  We found that a touchscreen was just didn't give the
resolution required.  So it depends, once again, on what you are
"pointing at".

>4.  fingerprints

We are using infra-red style touchscreens (the Carroll touch panel).
Fingerprints smudge the screen, but don't screw up the touchscreen as
one's finger is actually breaking beams of light.

>5.  touch screens cause glare, distortion, and reduce display brightness

We don't know, because we aren't using that kind.  Cf. 4.

>6.  a mouse has more degrees of freedom (especially a multi-button mouse)

Assuming:
  a) your software knows about the other buttons,
  b) your USERS know about the difference between the buttons.

I've seen people who were used to Macintoshes lost with multi-button
mice, but the learning-curve doesn't seem all that steep IF THE USE OF
THE BUTTONS IS CONSISTENT.

>Ken Lee
>klee@ads.arpa

John A. deVries II
jad@lanl.gov.ARPA   ...ihnp4!lanl!gov    ...cmcl2!lanl!gov
-- 

Zoz

"I ALWAYS read the CONDENSED version of the _Reader's Digest_."