Manual tracking using touchscreen interfaces

Touchscreen devices are increasingly being utilized in machine control environments. They are used to enter operating parameters, monitor processes, and issue real-time control signals. However, little data exists on what type of interface should be used for a given application; therefore this paper studies different interfaces for real-time control. Three very distinct user interfaces are implemented on a touchscreen device and compared with a physical joystick in a manual-tracking experiment. Results show that operators performed best with the joystick, followed by an interface with on/off commands, an interface with tilting commands, and finally an interface with a touchscreen slider.