Exploring Pointer Enhancement Techniques for Target Selection on Large Curved Display

TL;DR

This work investigates how user position affects pointing on large curved displays and evaluates six cursor-enhancement techniques across motor-space and visual-space axes. Two within-subject studies (N=12 per study) on a 3 m tall semi-circular curved display reveal that greater Interaction Distance speeds pointing but reduces accuracy, while lateral offset biases performance away from the display center. The six techniques show that combining acceleration- and distance-based control with visual enlargement (notably PADISTSIZE and PADIST) yields the best movement time, accuracy, and throughput across positions, informing practical design guidelines. Practically, the findings suggest integrating distance-aware control with cursor enlargement can robustly improve pointing in curved-display contexts across user positions.

Abstract

Large curved displays are becoming increasingly popular due to their ability to provide users with a wider field of view and a more immersive experience compared to flat displays. Current interaction techniques for large curved displays often assume a user is positioned at the display's centre, crucially failing to accommodate general use conditions where the user may move during use. In this work, we investigated how user position impacts pointing interaction on large curved displays and evaluated cursor enhancement techniques to provide faster and more accurate performance across positions. To this effect, we conducted two user studies. First, we evaluated the effects of user position on pointing performance on a large semi-circular display (3m-tall, 3270R curvature) through a 2D Fitts' Law selection task. Our results indicate that as users move away from the display, their pointing speed significantly increases (at least by 9%), but accuracy decreases (by at least 6%). Additionally, we observed participants were slower when pointing from laterally offset positions. Secondly, we explored which pointing techniques providing motor- and visual-space enhancements best afford effective pointing performance across user positions. Across a total of six techniques tested, we found that a combination of acceleration and distance-based adjustments with cursor enlargement significantly improves target selection speed and accuracy across different user positions. Results further show techniques with visual-space enhancements (e.g., cursor enlargement) are significantly faster and more accurate than their non-visually-enhanced counterparts. Based on our results we provide design recommendations for implementing cursor enhancement techniques for large curved displays.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: (a) Movement Time by Interaction Distance for each target Amplitude; (b) Movement time by target Width for each Lateral Offset; (c) Fitts' Law regression lines for Movement Time by Fitts ID for each Interaction Distance and (d) Accuracy by Interaction Distance for each target Width.
• Figure 2: Subjective feedback score: (a) for each Interaction Distance, and (b) for each Lateral Offset (error bars represent are 95% confidence intervals).
• Figure 3: For each Technique, we show average (a) Movement time by Lateral Offset, (b) Movement time by Interaction Distance and (c) Accuracy by Interaction Distance. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
• Figure 4: (a)Subjective feedback score (NASA-TLX nasatlx) for each Technique and (b) For each Technique, we show average Throughput. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.