A comprehensive research framework for investigation of the use of hand and foot controls in the context of spatial stimulus response (S-R) compatibility effect

Most of the previous studies on spatial stimulus response (S-R) compatibility are limited to the use of hand controls, and there are no ergonomics guidelines on using foot controls in the context of spatial compatibility. If some controls of a process can be given over to the feet, there would be an obvious advantage in having the hands free for other tasks which require higher level of precision and dexterity. This paper proposes a research framework comprising a series of experiments which aim to: (i) design and conduct a series of spatial compatibility experiments for measuring human subjects' response preferences and choice reaction times at different configurations of displays and hand and foot controls, (ii) investigate the effect of interaction between hand and foot controls in such configurations, (iii) to find out the optimum positional mappings of hand and foot controls with visual signals presented at different planes of displays in progressing towards optimal human machine interface design for improving overall system performance.