Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!rodan.acs.syr.edu!isr
From: isr@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Michael S. Schechter - ISR group account)
Subject: Re: the interface for the rest of us?
Message-ID: <1991May14.214225.13103@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Organization: Institute for Sensory Research
References: <1271@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au> <42908@netnews.upenn.edu> <4823@autodesk.COM>
Date: Tue, 14 May 91 21:42:25 GMT

In article <4823@autodesk.COM> robertj@Autodesk.COM (Young Rob Jellinghaus) writes:
>I don't get it.  You get no tactile feedback from using the mouse--the
>only feedback is something getting highlighted or selected on the screen.
>How is this any different from cyberspace?  You reach out to grab some-
>thing and as you touch it it glows brighter?  No ambiguity whatsoever.
>Even less, in fact, if you add sound.  Take a look at SonicFinder on the
>Mac--as you click on something you hear a tone, dropping something into
>the trash can creates a "crash" noise... there's no reason lack of tactile
>feedback need impact the usability of a well-designed cyberspace.

As i may not have stressed in a previous followup, it's not so much the
lack of feedback when you do actions - it's the lack of feedback of 
position - try this experiment if you have the equipment - using a 
sonic stylus or a digitizer tablet hold the stylus/cursor about an
inch off the digitizing surface while the computer is tracking it's
motion. Now look away and talk to someone, for thirty seconds or so
watching neither the screen or device, and your position will probably
have wandered a good .5-2" (more if your elbow is in the air)
Now take a paper clip and bend it so it sticks up in the air..
put it where you where holding the stylus and touch your finger to it
and look away for the same time... your drift will be about .1" maximum
because you'll feel it when you stop touching the paper clip. And it doesn't
take a whole lot a feedback force for this kind of position sensing, as
a paper clip is easily pushed out of position.
-- 
Mike_Schechter@isr.syr.edu | XLII,B,+3dB,Non-Nak | Make Tapes, Not War
