Spatial Stimulus Response (S-R) Compatibility for Hand and Foot Controls with Visual Displays: Implications for Human Machine Interface Design

Most of the previous studies on spatial stimulus response (S-R) compatibility are limited to hand controls, and there are no ergonomics guidelines on using foot controls in the context of spatial compatibility. If some process controls can be operated by the feet, the hands are obviously freed for other tasks requiring higher levels of precision and dexterity. The work proposed here aims to:design and conduct a series of visual choice experiments to measure choice reaction times and accuracies for different configurations of hand and foot controls with visual displays;investigate the effects on performance of spatial compatibility in the use of hand and foot controls; andprogress towards improved human machine interface design and overall system performance, by determining optimum positional mappings for hand and foot controls with visual signals presented in different display planes.