Using the Motion of the Head-Neck as a Joystick for Orientation Control

Head-neck interfaces have the potential to command and control orientation tasks when the hand-wrist is not available for use as a joystick. We pose the question in this paper-How well can the head-neck be used to perform orientation tasks when compared to the hand-wrist? Anatomically, the motion of the head-neck is similar to that of the hand-wrist. We hypothesize that the head-neck motion can be as effective as the motion of the hand-wrist to control orientation tasks. A study was designed to characterize the ability of head-neck to command and control general orientation tasks. Fourteen healthy participants were asked to control the head orientation of an avatar on a computer screen using the motion of their head-neck and hand-wrist, measured by a robotic neck brace and a conventional joystick, respectively. Visual feedback was given to the participants with the display of the target and the actual head orientations of the avatar. The outcomes were defined for comparison between the head-neck and hand-wrist motions as follows: 1) mean absolute error; 2) time delay in tracking continuous orientation trajectories; and 3) settling time to reach target orientations. The results showed that the performance outcomes were significantly better with the hand-wrist than that of the head-neck when used as a joystick. However, all participants successfully completed the tasks with the head-neck. This demonstrates that the head-neck can be used as a joystick for controlling three dimensional object orientations, even though it may not be as dexterous as the hand-wrist. These results have fundamental implications in the design of devices and interfaces with the human head-neck.