Characteristics of human pointing motions with acceleration

Pointer acceleration is often applied to computer mice and other types of pointing interfaces to increase the effective speed and range of pointing motions without sacrificing precision during slow movements. However, the effects of pointer acceleration are not well understood and have been shown to be detrimental in some cases. We approach the problem of analyzing the effects of pointer acceleration from a systems perspective and show some general properties of a new dynamics model for pointer acceleration. Specifically, using our new model for pointer acceleration, along with the existing VITE model of human pointing motions, we show that the closed loop pointing system is stable for any acceleration profile, assuming there are no feedback delays or perturbations. We additionally show some state and performance bounds for this case, which could potentially be used to design pointing interfaces with acceleration.