Article

The bubble cursor: enhancing target acquisition by dynamic resizing of the cursor's activation area

Authors:

Ravin BalakrishnanAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '05: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 281 - 290

https://doi.org/10.1145/1054972.1055012

Published: 02 April 2005 Publication History

Abstract

We present the bubble cursor - a new target acquisition technique based on area cursors. The bubble cursor improves upon area cursors by dynamically resizing its activation area depending on the proximity of surrounding targets, such that only one target is selectable at any time. We also present two controlled experiments that evaluate bubble cursor performance in 1D and 2D target acquisition tasks, in complex situations with multiple targets of varying layout densities. Results show that the bubble cursor significantly outperforms the point cursor and the object pointing technique [7], and that bubble cursor performance can be accurately modeled and predicted using Fitts' law.

References

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Accot, J. and Zhai, S. (2003). Refining Fitts' law models for bivariate pointing. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 193--200.

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Aurenhammer, F. and Klein, R. (2000). Voronoi Diagrams. Chapter 5 in, in Handbook of computational geometry, J. Sack and J. Urrutia, Editors. North-Holland: Amsterdam, Netherlands. p. 201--290.

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Baudisch, P., Cutrell, E., Robbins, D., Czerwinski, M., Tandler, P., Bederson, B., and Zierlinger, A. (2003). Drag-and-pop and drag-and-pick: Techniques for accessing remote screen content on touch- and pen-operated systems. Proceedings of Interact. p. 57--64.

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Blanch, R., Guiard, Y., and Beaudouin-Lafon, M. (2004). Semantic pointing: improving target acquisition with control-display ratio adaptation. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 519--525.

Digital Library

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Cockburn, A. and Firth, A. (2003). Improving the acquisition of small targets. British HCI Conference. p. 181--196.

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Fitts, P.M. (1954). The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 47. p. 381--391.

[7]

Grossman, T. and Balakrishnan, R. (2005 - in press). A probabilistic approach to modeling 2D pointing. To appear in ACM Transactions on Compute Human Interaction.

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Guiard, Y., Blanch, R., and Beaudouin-Lafon, M. (2004). Object pointing: a complement to bitmap pointing in GUIs. Graphics Interface. p. 9--16.

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Kabbash, P. and Buxton, W. (1995). The "Prince" technique: Fitts' law and selection using area cursors. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 273--279.

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Keyson, D. (1997). Dynamic cursor gain and tactual feedback in the capture of cursor movements. Ergonomics, 12. p. 1287--1298.

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MacKenzie, S. (1992). Fitts' law as a research and design tool in human-computer interaction. Human-Computer Interaction, 7. p. 91--139.

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MacKenzie, S. and Buxton, W. (1992). Extending Fitts' law to two-dimensional tasks. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 219--226.

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McGuffin, M. (2002). Fitts' law and expanding targets: an experimental study and applications to user interface design, M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto.

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McGuffin, M. and Balakrishnan, R. (2002). Acquisition of expanding targets. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 57--64.

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Worden, A., Walker, N., Bharat, K., and Hudson, S. (1997). Making computers easier for older adults to use: area cursors and sticky icons. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 266--271.

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Zhai, S., Buxton, W., and Milgram, P. (1994). The "Silk Cursor": Investigating transparency for 3D target acquisition. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 459--464.

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Zhai, S., Conversy, S., Beaudouin-Lafon, M., and Guiard, Y. (2003). Human on-line response to target expansion. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 177--184.

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Cited By

Kim WXiong S(2024)TouchView: Mid-Air Touch on Zoomable 2D View for Distant Freehand Selection on a Virtual Reality User InterfaceSensors10.3390/s2422720224:22(7202)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/s24227202
Monthe VDuval T(2024)A Two-Level Highlighting Technique Based on Gaze Direction to Improve Target Pointing and Selection on a Big Touch ScreenMultimodal Technologies and Interaction10.3390/mti80400298:4(29)Online publication date: 10-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/mti8040029
Bihani DUllah ADufresne-Camaro CDelamare WIrani PHasan K(2024)Exploring Pointer Enhancement Techniques for Target Selection on Large Curved DisplayProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36981358:ISS(214-235)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3698135
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Index Terms

The bubble cursor: enhancing target acquisition by dynamic resizing of the cursor's activation area
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI theory, concepts and models
    2. Interaction paradigms
  2. Interaction design
    1. Interaction design theory, concepts and paradigms

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '05: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2005

928 pages

ISBN:1581139985

DOI:10.1145/1054972

Conference Chairs:
Wendy Kellogg
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
,
Shumin Zhai
IBM Almaden Research Center
,
General Chair:
Gerrit van der Veer
Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands
,
Program Chair:
Carolyn Gale
Stanford University, USA

Copyright © 2005 ACM.

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Published: 02 April 2005

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CHI05

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CHI05: CHI 2005 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2 - 7, 2005

Oregon, Portland, USA

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CHI '05 Paper Acceptance Rate 93 of 372 submissions, 25%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.3390/s24227202
Monthe VDuval T(2024)A Two-Level Highlighting Technique Based on Gaze Direction to Improve Target Pointing and Selection on a Big Touch ScreenMultimodal Technologies and Interaction10.3390/mti80400298:4(29)Online publication date: 10-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/mti8040029
Bihani DUllah ADufresne-Camaro CDelamare WIrani PHasan K(2024)Exploring Pointer Enhancement Techniques for Target Selection on Large Curved DisplayProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36981358:ISS(214-235)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3698135
Yamanaka SUsuba HOba YKinoshita TTomihari RKasahara NMiyashita H(2024)Verifying Finger-Fitts Models for Normalizing Subjective Speed-Accuracy BiasesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36765328:MHCI(1-24)Online publication date: 24-Sep-2024
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Carayon AMartinie CPalanque PBarboni ESteere S(2024)A Systematic Process to Engineer Dependable Integration of Frame-based Input Devices in a Multimodal Input Chain: Application to Rehabilitation in HealthcareProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36646338:EICS(1-31)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
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Zhang ZThompson JShah AAgrawal MSarikaya AWobbrock JCutrell ELee B(2024)ChartA11y: Designing Accessible Touch Experiences of Visualizations with Blind Smartphone UsersProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675611(1-15)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
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Dix ALuyten KMayer SPalanque PPanizzi ESpano LZiegler J(2024)Second Workshop on Engineering Interactive Systems Embedding AI TechnologiesCompanion Proceedings of the 16th ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems10.1145/3660515.3662837(103-107)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3660515.3662837
Yu DCibulskis MMortensen EChristensen MBergström J(2024)Metrics of Motor Learning for Analyzing Movement Mapping in Virtual RealityProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642354(1-18)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642354
Moon HLiao YLi CLee BOulasvirta A(2024)Real-time 3D Target Inference via Biomechanical SimulationProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642131(1-18)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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Sidenmark LSun ZGellersen H(2024)Cone&Bubble: Evaluating Combinations of Gaze, Head and Hand Pointing for Target Selection in Dense 3D Environments2024 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)10.1109/VRW62533.2024.00126(642-649)Online publication date: 16-Mar-2024
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