TY - GEN

T1 - Optimal Sensor Position for a Computer Mouse

AU - Kim, Sunjun

AU - Lee, Byungjoo

AU - van Gemert, Thomas

AU - Oulasvirta, Antti

N1 - 13 pages, CHI 2020

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Computer mice have their displacement sensors in various locations (center, front, and rear). However, there has been little research into the effects of sensor position or on engineering approaches to exploit it. This paper first discusses the mechanisms via which sensor position affects mouse movement and reports the results from a study of a pointing task in which the sensor position was systematically varied. Placing the sensor in the center turned out to be the best compromise: improvements over front and rear were in the 11--14% range for throughput and 20--23% for path deviation. However, users varied in their personal optima. Accordingly, variable-sensor-position mice are then presented, with a demonstration that high accuracy can be achieved with two static optical sensors. A virtual sensor model is described that allows software-side repositioning of the sensor. Individual-specific calibration should yield an added 4% improvement in throughput over the default center position.

AB - Computer mice have their displacement sensors in various locations (center, front, and rear). However, there has been little research into the effects of sensor position or on engineering approaches to exploit it. This paper first discusses the mechanisms via which sensor position affects mouse movement and reports the results from a study of a pointing task in which the sensor position was systematically varied. Placing the sensor in the center turned out to be the best compromise: improvements over front and rear were in the 11--14% range for throughput and 20--23% for path deviation. However, users varied in their personal optima. Accordingly, variable-sensor-position mice are then presented, with a demonstration that high accuracy can be achieved with two static optical sensors. A virtual sensor model is described that allows software-side repositioning of the sensor. Individual-specific calibration should yield an added 4% improvement in throughput over the default center position.

U2 - 10.1145/3313831.3376735

DO - 10.1145/3313831.3376735

M3 - Article in proceedings

BT - CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - ACM

T2 - 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing System

Y2 - 25 April 2020 through 30 April 2020

ER -