Investigation of Feel for 6DOF Inputs: Isometric and Elastic Rate Control for Manipulation in 3D Environments

An increasing need exists for both a theoretical basis and practical human factors guidelines for designing and selecting high degree-of-freedom (DOF) computer input devices for 3D interactive environments such as telerobotic and virtual reality systems. This study evaluates elastic versus isometric rate control devices, in a 3D object positioning task. An experiment was conducted with a stereoscopic virtual reality system. The results showed that the elastic rate controller facilitated faster task completion time in the first of four phases of the experiment. The results are discussed in light of psychomotor literature. While the richer proprioceptive feedback afforded by an elastic controller is necessary for achieving superior performance in the early stages of learning, subjects performed equally well with the isometric controller in later learning stages. The study provides evidence to support a theory of skill shift from closed-loop to open-loop behaviour as learning progresses.