Decoding Intent With Control Theory: Comparing Muscle Versus Manual Interface Performance

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Manual device interaction requires precise coordination which may be difficult for users with motor impairments. Muscle interfaces provide alternative interaction methods that may enhance performance, but have not yet been evaluated for simple (eg. mouse tracking) and complex (eg. driving) continuous tasks. Control theory enables us to probe continuous task performance by separating user input into intent and error correction to quantify how motor impairments impact device interaction. We compared the effectiveness of a manual versus a muscle interface for eleven users without and three users with motor impairments performing continuous tasks. Both user groups preferred and performed better with the muscle versus the manual interface for the complex continuous task. These results suggest muscle interfaces and algorithms that can detect and augment user intent may be especially useful for future design of interfaces for continuous tasks.