Method to assess the physical effort to acquire physical targets
Patent 5933138 Issued on August 3, 1999. Estimated Expiration Date: December 16, 2017. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
An objective, quantitative metric is used in a system that measures the physical effort expended by a user on computer input devices while the user manages the functionality of application software so that an evaluation of the desirability of computer-human interfaces being evaluated is generated. For certain convex polygonal targets of arbitrary size and location relative to a target acquiring device, the present invention identifies a circular subset of points that permits determination of the width and distance parameters of Fitts' Index of Difficulty and thus, permits objective quantification of the physical effort incurred in acquiring a target via computer input devices. The invention itself presents a method for symbolically expressing actual targets appearing on a computer-human interface and physical actions required by a user to accomplish a task set utilizing the application software. This symbolic capability also presents procedures for storing relevant alterations to actual targets occasioned by user manipulations. Targets to which the invention applies are computer interface entities in the shapes of triangles, standard rectangles, parallelograms, trapezoids, and general convex quadrilaterals.
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December 16, 2017. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
