Glove-Enabled Computer Operations (GECO): Design and Testing of an Extravehicular Activity Glove Adapted for Human-Computer Interface
2013
The Glove-Enabled Computer Operations (GECO) system enables an extravehicular
activity (EVA) glove to be dual-purposed as a human-computer interface device. This paper
describes the design and human participant testing of a right-handed GECO glove in a
pressurized glove box. As part of an investigation into the usability of the GECO system for
EVA data entry, twenty participants were asked to complete activities including (1) a Simon
Says Games in which they attempted to duplicate random sequences of targeted finger
strikes and (2) a Text Entry activity in which they used the GECO glove to enter target
phrases in two different virtual keyboard modes. In a within-subjects design, both activities
were performed both with and without vibrotactile feedback. Participants’ mean accuracies
in correctly generating finger strikes with the pressurized glove were surprisingly high, both
with and without the benefit of tactile feedback. Five of the subjects achieved mean
accuracies exceeding 99% in both conditions. In Text Entry, tactile feedback provided a
statistically significant performance benefit, quantified by characters entered per minute, as
well as reduction in error rate. Secondary analyses of responses to a NASA Task Loader
Index (TLX) subjective workload assessments reveal a benefit for tactile feedback in GECO
glove use for data entry. This first-ever investigation of employment of a pressurized EVA
glove for human-computer interface opens up a wide range of future applications, including
text “chat” communications, manipulation of procedures/checklists, cataloguing/annotating
images, scientific note taking, human-robot interaction, and control of suit and/or other
EVA systems.
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
22
References
2
Citations
NaN
KQI