Everything to Gain: Combining Area Cursors with increased Control-Display Gain for Fast and Accurate Touchless Input

Touchless displays often use mid-air gestures to control on-screen cursors for pointer interactions. Area cursors can simplify touchless cursor input by implicitly targeting nearby widgets without the cursor entering the target. However, for displays with dense target layouts, the cursor still has to arrive close to the widget, meaning the benefits of area cursors for time-to-target and effort are diminished. Through two experiments, we demonstrate for the first time that fine-tuning the mapping between hand and cursor movements (control-display gain – CDG) can address the deficiencies of area cursors and improve the performance of touchless interaction. Across several display sizes and target densities (representative of myriad public displays used in retail, transport, museums, etc), our findings show that the forgiving nature of an area cursor compensates for the imprecision of a high CDG, helping users interact more effectively with smaller and more controlled hand/arm movements.