Haptically Creating Affordances: The User-Tool Interface

Successful use of a hand-held tool requires overcoming the rotational inertia of the hand-plus-tool system. Where an object is grasped affects this rotational inertia. Appropriate choice of grip position may be crucial in the safe, effective, and efficient control of a hand-held tool. In 3 experimen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Applied 2003-09, Vol.9 (3), p.175-186
Main Authors: Wagman, Jeffrey B, Carello, Claudia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Choice Behavior
Environment
Fixation, Ocular
Grasping
Hand (Anatomy)
Hand Strength - physiology
Human
Humans
Rotation
Tactual Perception
Tool Use
User-Computer Interface
Visual Perception
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Summary:Successful use of a hand-held tool requires overcoming the rotational inertia of the hand-plus-tool system. Where an object is grasped affects this rotational inertia. Appropriate choice of grip position may be crucial in the safe, effective, and efficient control of a hand-held tool. In 3 experiments, the authors investigated how choice of grip position on a tool was constrained by task demands. The results suggest that choice of grasp position serves to establish relationships among 3 variables derived from the inertial ellipsoid of the hand-object system (volume, symmetry, and eigenvector angle) in a way that specifically reflected the power or precision constraints of the given task. These variables have previously been shown to play a role in haptic perception of tool function. Changing grasp position on a tool is a way to exert control over the nuances of the user-tool interface.
ISSN:1076-898X
1939-2192
DOI:10.1037/1076-898X.9.3.175