Graphics, Imaging, and Games Lab

A number of task settings involve selection of objects from dynamic visual environments with multiple moving targets. Target selection is difficult in these settings because objects move, because there are a number of distracter objects for any targeting action, and because objects can occlude the target. Target feedback has been suggested as a way to assist targeting in visual environments. We carried out an experiment to test the effects of visual target feedback. We found that targeting does become more difficult as the number and speed of objects increases, and that feedback can improve error rates. When feedback was provided on all objects in the space, performance improved significantly over no feedback. Target-only feedback, however, was not significantly better than no feedback. This is a valuable result because all-object feedback is in most cases the only implementation option - since it is usually not possible to pre-determine the user's target among the set of objects.