Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!scubed!s3snorkel!warner
From: warner@s3snorkel.ARPA (Ken Warner)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Human Factors: Paper-Like Interface
Message-ID: <911@scubed.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jan 89 17:25:04 GMT
References: <316@cui.UUCP> <2690009@hpdsla.HP.COM> <8710@megaron.arizona.edu>
Sender: usenet@scubed.UUCP
Reply-To: warner@s3snorkel.UUCP (Ken Warner)
Organization: S-Cubed, San Diego California
Lines: 29

In article <8710@megaron.arizona.edu> gln@arizona.edu (Gary L. Newell) writes:
>In article <2690009@hpdsla.HP.COM>, garye@hpdsla.HP.COM (Gary Ericson) writes:
>> Assuming that you use a technology that doesn't require you to keep your arm
>> out of the way (i.e., infra-red lines would be interrupted by your arm if

This is my main gripe with the current set of pointing devices.  You have to
use your whole arm to move an essentially weightless cursor.  After a day of
mousing around, I have a knot in my shoulder that can really hurt.  Also my
back is tired from the asymetrical position necessary to balance one extended
arm.

>> For me, if it was a small amount of text and I already had a pen in hand for
>> pointing, I think I'd rather write out the text in longhand on the screen
>> with the pen.  Typing on a non-tactile-feedback screen would be more tedious 
>
>There has been quite a bit of work at IBM T.J. Watson Research in the last
>two years on Gestural Interfaces. The use of a transparent tablet over a
>flat display seems to be optimal for such a paper/pen like interface. It
>eliminates the problems of determining precise points being indicated on
>the screen. ....

What about the problem of paralax?  The separation between the actual working
surface and the pen is a small but finite amount.  The medium of separation is
refractive.  Unless one's eyes are within a cone of ( I dunno what to call it
... perhaps workability ) it would be similar to trying to poke a fish in water.
This is not much of an error to compensate for, but over time it could
accumulate to a lot of extra work.

Ken Warner