Effects of Feedforward in In-Air Remote Pointing

Remote pointing devices like the Wii remote have a wide range of applications and are becoming more important for the manipulation of and interactions with information on a distant display such as smart TVs. Because remote pointing devices are used without external support, however, muscular tremors and motional disparity between the display and motor space can result in usability problems of mouse jitters and instability. In this research, a solution is proposed to those problems using feedforward technology, where a user is provided with predictive information in multisensory modalities while approaching a target. Also, gender effect on the user experience of remote pointing devices is examined. By conducting two experiments and a survey, it was found that the feedforward signal plays a role of precue and is more effective than the typical feedback. It was also found that the modality variations in feedforward were impacted by the gender of the user. The findings can be used to improve user interfaces for remote pointing controllers.