Input observer: measuring text entry and pointing performance from naturalistic everyday computer use

In this paper we describe the Input Observer, a background application that will be capable of measuring a user's text entry and pointing abilities from everyday computer use "in the wild." The application runs quietly in the background of the user's computer and utilizes global Windows Hooks to observe the text entry input stream and use of the mouse, and will yield data equivalent to results from lab-based measures of text entry and target acquisition. A major challenge is the lack of a task model from which researchers can know the intent of the user at every moment. We describe our approach to handling this issue for both text entry and mouse pointing.