Ninja cursors: using multiple cursors to assist target acquisition on large screens

We propose the "ninja cursor" to improve the performance of target acquisition, particularly on large screens. This technique uses multiple distributed cursors to reduce the average distance to targets. Each cursor moves synchronously following mouse movement. We present the design and implementation of the proposed technique, including a method to resolve the ambiguity that results when multiple cursors indicate different targets simultaneously. We also conducted an experiment to assess the performance of the ninja cursor. The results indicate that it can generally reduce movement time. However, the performance is greatly affected by the number of cursors and target density. Based on these results, we discuss how our technique can be put into practical use. In addition to presenting a novel method to improve pointing performance, our study is the first to explore a variable number of cursors for performing pointing tasks. Author Keywords Pointing, Multiple Cursors, Large Sc...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Masatomo Kobayashi, Takeo Igarashi
• Keywords: CHI 2008, Human Computer Interaction, Multiple Cursors, Multiple Distributed Cursors, Ninja Cursor