Commentary: coordination of eye and hand in time and space

Every day of our lives starts with a succession of actions that require eye-hand coordination. From the time we try to turn off the alarm clock and get dressed, to putting toothpaste on the brush and preparing coffee: all these goal-directed hand movements need to be coordinated with the information from the eye. When performing such simultaneous goal-directed eye and hand movements, both the time and location at which eye and hand land on the object need to be harmonized. For better localizing the alarm clock, we need to see it before we hit it. In order to use this visual information for an accurate hand movement, we need the eye to land on the same position, i.e. eye and hand both need to be on the alarm clock instead of the water glass. These two aspects, temporal and spatial coordination, have encouraged a great deal of research. On the following pages, we will summarize a number of findings on how this coordination could be achieved.