Intermittent Control as a Model of Mouse Movements

Abstract

We present Intermittent Control (IC) models as a candidate framework for modelling human input movements in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI). IC differs from continuous control in that users are not assumed to use feedback to adjust their movements continuously, but only when the difference between the observed pointer position and predicted pointer positions becomes large. We use a parameter optimisation approach to identify the parameters of an intermittent controller from experimental data, where users performed one-dimensional mouse movements in a reciprocal pointing task. Compared to previous published work with continuous control models, based on the Kullback–Leibler divergence from the experimental observations, IC is better able to generatively reproduce the distinctive dynamical features and variability of the pointing task across participants and over repeated tasks. IC is compatible with current physiological and psychological theory and provides insight into the source of variability in HCI tasks.

Human pointing motion during interaction with an autonomous blimp

“…The signature property of the VITE model is that the displayed pointer tends to move beyond the target, generating an overshoot. This has been confirmed to agree with human behaviors by experimental work on human pointing motion 22 , 23 .…”

“…Previous works 11 , 12 on human–UAV interaction have not employed mathematical models for human pointing motion. We apply the VITE model, previously applied to model human motion during interaction with a computer mouse 20 – 22 to model the wand movements. The experimental data verifies that the VITE model is able to capture the major features in human generated wand movement during the interaction with GT-MAB.…”