Head mouse: generalisability of research focused on the disabled to able bodied users

Abstract

This paper discusses a study which aimed to determine whether the results obtained from studies focusing on users with disabilities are comparable with the results from users without disabilities for head operated cursor control. Four categories of research findings were investigated namely: the optimum sensitivity setting, the amount of neck fatigue, learnability and the level of user satisfaction. A shooting genre game was developed, and a task was included during development to simulate gaming actions with moving targets. Data for four efficiency metrics was gathered during two phases of user testing. The low sensitivity setting resulted in the fastest gameplay for users without disabilities, which contradicted research results from studies focusing on individuals with disabilities. It was also found that the amount of neck fatigue decreased after several sessions for users without disabilities. The efficient use of the head mouse by individuals without disabilities showed significant improvement over time for certain elements, indicating that learning took place. The level of user satisfaction also increased with extended use of the head mouse by individuals without disabilities. Although some findings can be generalized to both types of users, this study shows that new knowledge was gained in terms of able bodied use of a head mouse.