The impact of control-display gain in kinesthetic search

Abstract

Kinesthetic interaction typically employs force-feedback devices for providing the kinesthetic input and feedback. However, the length of the mechanical arm limits the space that users can interact with. To overcome this challenge, a large control-display (CD) gain (>1) is often used to transfer a small movement of the arm to a large movement of the onscreen interaction point. Although a large gain is commonly used, its effects on task performance (e.g., task completion time and accuracy) and user experience in kinesthetic interaction remain unclear. In this study, we compared a large CD gain with the unit CD gain as the baseline in a task involving kinesthetic search. Our results showed that the large gain reduced task completion time at the cost of task accuracy. Two gains did not differ in their effects on perceived hand fatigue, naturalness, and pleasantness, but the large gain negatively influenced user confidence of successful task completion.