A WEB-BASED TEST OF FITTS'
LAW http://www.tele-actor.net/fitts/
Ken Goldberg presents an online
test involving Fitts law, a famous formula for determining
ergonomic "fit." The formula's fame as an equation
is perhaps even greater than its usefulness. This is a
marvelous specimen of a Hyper-Runt: a
device so explicitly geared towards enhancing aesthetic
value breaks out of its role as enabler and becomes a
work of art in itself. Needless to say, Fitts law was
never used to generate itself.
One of the things I like about Ken's work is his ability
to build complex robotic systems which amalgamate into
a kind of sparse, but pregnant, haiku. One case in point
was his Telegarden which involved a robotic arm that could
tend to the needs of a small plot of plants. Quite remarkably,
anyone on Earth with access to the internet could water
those plants. Over the years Ken's Telegarden has emerged
into a grade-A Hyper-Runt with a cult
following. It is a living omen reminding us of both our
technological mastery and our need to shape our growing
planetary cyborg responsibly.
--Ebon Fisher |
This a website I developed in 2003 to explore Fitts' Law,
the famous 1954 time and motion model. It allows users
to test their response times to clicking on targets. It then
displays an analysis of the results. Over 2500 people
have used it even though I've never officially presented the
project. It is indeed a runaway runt/orphan. My Fitts' Law
Project is related to, but doesn't fit into any of the standard
cultural categories of art, science, design, or engineering.
It is purely online, but could be projected and visitors could
test their responses at the exhibit as others watch.
Fitts' Law has a long and interesting history in terms of Human Factors and Time and Motion Studies. It's an unusually successful and well-studied model. There have been hundreds of studies related to it in the human-computer interaction literature, and quite possibly thousands of studies published in the larger psychomovement literature.
- Ken Goldberg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
In ergonomics, Fitts' law (or Fitts's law) is a principle of human movement published in 1954 by Paul Fitts which predicts the time required to move from a starting position to a final target area. The kind of motion it describes is aimed and rapid. The time needed to acquire a target is a function of the distance to the target, and the size of the target. Fitt's law is used to model the act of pointing, both in the real world, e.g. with a hand or finger, and on a computer, e.g. with a mouse. For more on Fitts Law see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts'_law |
