The touchscreen user interface is an inherently dynamic device that is becoming
ubiquitous. The touchscreen’s ability to adapt to the user’s needs makes it superior
to more traditional haptic devices in many ways. Most touchscreen devices come with
a very large array of sensors already included in the package. This gives engineers
the means to develop human-machine interfaces that are very intuitive to use. This
thesis presents research that was done to develop a best touchscreen interface for
driving an industrial crane for novice users. To generalize the research, testing also
determined how touchscreen interfaces compare to the traditional joystick in highly
dynamic tracking situations using a manual tracking experiment.
Three separate operator studies were conducted to investigate touchscreen control
of cranes. The data indicates that the touchscreen interfaces are superior to the
traditional push-button control pendent and that the layout and function of the
graphical user interface on the touchscreen plays a roll in the performance of the
human operators.
The touchscreen interface also adds great promise for allowing users to navigate
through interactive textbooks. Therefore, this thesis also presents developments
directed at creating the next generation of engineering textbooks. Nine widgets were
developed for an interactive mechanical design textbook that is meant to be delivered
via tablet computers. Those widgets help students improve their technical writing
abilities, introduce them to tools they can use in product development, as well as give
them knowledge in how some dynamical systems behave. In addition two touchscreen
applications were developed to aid the judging of a mechanical design competition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:GATECH/oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/49051 |
| Date | 20 September 2013 |
| Creators | Kivila, Arto |
| Contributors | Singhose, William E. |
| Publisher | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | Georgia Tech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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