Effect of Vibration on the Operation of Decimal Input Devices

Abstract

A series of three experimental studies was conducted to determine the relative effects of mechanical vibration on decimal input performance. Six input panels were used, involving four basic types of controls: push buttons, toggle switches, rotary switches, and thumbwheels. Subjects were engineer/pilots who were given the task of inserting eight-digit decimal numbers. Twelve subjects were used in the first and second studies, ten in the third. The dependent measures were speed, accuracy, preference, and estimated speed and accuracy. The first study was conducted in an office environment. The second study was conducted under a control condition and 0.5 RMSg (2–30 Hz.) random vertical vibration; the third study was conducted under five levels of 2–30 Hz. random vertical vibration (0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 RMSg). No single device was best in terms of speed, accuracy, and preference. The overall effect of vibration was to degrade performance.