Investigation of activity performance on laptop in vibration environment

Abstract The present study investigated effects of vibration direction, vibration magnitude, object size, object distance and angle of approach on movement time taken by eleven participants using a mouse to perform ‘pointing and clicking’ activity on a laptop. From the combination of vibration directions, vibration magnitudes, object sizes, object distances and angles of approach, a total of 416 exposure conditions were considered. For successful completion of ‘pointing and clicking’ activity under different exposure conditions, the time required to finish the task was measured. Using the Fitts' law, a relation between movement time and index of difficulty was developed for different vibration directions and magnitudes considered in the study. Higher vibration magnitudes, smaller size of the objects, and diagonal angular movements were found to affect the movement time and hence showed difficulties to perform the activity. Relevance to industry This study investigated the performance of a mouse to execute pointing and clicking activity on a laptop in vibration environment. The results showed that difficulties to perform the activity were due to higher magnitudes, smaller size of the objects, and diagonal cursor movements. These research achievements can help human–computer interaction design in various dynamic environments such as in land and sea vehicles.