Analysing Human Interaction with Electronic Displays in Microgravity

Abstract

Human Space Flight missions often require interaction with touchscreen displays. This paper presents a study of investigating human machine interaction with touchscreen using both finger and stylus in the International Space Station. The study also reports cognitive state of astronauts in the form of spatial 2-back test and mental well-being through self-reported scales. We presented a series of results comparing pointing and selection performance among ISS crews, ground crews and university students, finger-based touching and stylus-based touching in microgravity and mental well-being scores. We reported that finger-based pointing is statistically significantly faster than stylus-based pointing in microgravity based on analysis of 420 pointing tasks in ISS from 2 astronauts. We also did not find any significant difference among pointing performance and mental state of astronauts and students on ground. Results from the study can be used to predict pointing and selection time from dimension and position of GUI (Graphical User Interface) elements for cockpits of spacecraft.