mouse ether helping users acquire targets across multimon patrick baudisch microsoft research, visualization and interaction research ed cutrell ken hinckley robert gruen start target

tasks with incorrect visual feedback

mouse across multimon problem 1: different dpi start target high dpi low dpi

mouse across multimon problem 2: the gap start target

contents problem: why the cursor gets warped eliminating warping with mouse ether calibration user study: up to 28% faster in acquisition task conclusions: need to test fitts’ law

why the cursor gets warped system oblivious of dpi differences start target high dpi low dpi system oblivious of gaps target start

mouse ether with mouse ether target start low dpi high dpi now users can acquire targets on direct path mouse ether start target high dpi low dpi start target

calibration step 3 step 1 step 2

the math (ex,ey,) +(dx,dy) on init (ex,ey,) ’ every frame (cx,cy) screen i screen j

off-screen travel with mouse ether start target

more off-screen travel target start same dpi with mouse ether high dpi low dpi  name ether user’s perspective system’s perspective target start blocked same dpi target blocked high dpi low dpi start start target

taming off-screen travel iteration 1: restrict to convex hull iteration 2: allow entering ether only for the purpose of transit towards another screen at sufficient speed otherwise screen boundaries “hard” target start

user study 2x 18” screens 1280x1024 and 800x600 resolution eight participants WinFitts software 72 movements (=4 trials x 9 paths x 2 directions)

Movement Time (ms ±SEM) results with mouse ether up to 28% faster 1800 Control 1600 MouseEther 1400 1200 1000 Movement Time (ms ±SEM) 800 600 400 200 High-Low Low-High Direction of Movement

conclusions multimon offers incorrect visual cues this hinders successful target acquisition mouse ether improves acquisition speed by matching pointer behavior to visual cues off-screen travel allows for direct target acquisition future work: investigate target acquisition under contradictory visual feedback ( Fitts’ law?)

thanks! read more at thanks to: www.patrickbaudisch.com mary czerwinski, george robertson, & desney tan