The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of three variables on target designation tasks using three-dimensional (3-D) maps. Variable 1: two continuous control techniques, Variable 2: two aiding techniques, and Variable 3: two target densities. The two continuous controllers used were an ultrasonic hand tracker and a joystick. The two aiding techniques were referred to as simple and enhanced aiding. Simple aiding consisted of a color change to the target when the cursor penetrated the target volume. Enhanced aiding consisted of an algorithm (Osga, 1991) that "pulled" the cursor to the closest target and then changed its color. The two target densities were high (16 targets) and low (8 targets). Results showed that the hand tracker provided the best performance with respect to total target designation time. Enhanced aiding provided the best performance in terms of both total target designation time and percent errors. For the density variable, the common speed-accuracy trade-off was present -- the low density condition had faster total target designation times, but the high density had less percent errors.
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