The smallest target size for a comfortable pointing in freehand space: human pointing precision of freehand interaction

Designing interfaces that suit human pointing precision in freehand space can improve the smoothness and naturalness of gestural interaction. However, only few studies focus on the proper pointing precision for a comfortable target acquisition to provide suggestions for user-centered interface design for such kind of techniques. This paper presents work on studying and estimating human pointing precision in three separate dimensions in different motion ranges when performing precision movement in freehand space. Human pointing precision was estimated to be about 1.67–3.0 cm within a motion range about 40 cm. Participants’ performances for small target acquisition were close in horizontal and vertical dimensions, but worst in depth dimension. The effects of task amplitude on the pointing precision became prominent in depth dimension, and minimal in vertical dimension. The work also indicated that precise movement of freehand induced side effect to make hand stiff and gesture like “putting forward” physically exhausting, especially to reach small targets. This work provides a deeper insight into freehand interaction and contributes to the user-centered design of freehand-like interfaces.

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