Abstract
Modern manual tracking and display systems transmit velocity, rather than position, of the rolling hall control into the display computer; in this manner, the necessity of continually updating control position is avoided, and a signal is transmitted to the computer only when the ball is moved. This presents difficulties to the system designer, however, insofar as the expected range of velocities for the rolling ball control has not been experimentally determined. In the present study, the maximum rate of surface travel for a 3-in.-diameter track ball is elicited for subjects tracking randomly-positioned stationary targets at varying distances and directions. Maximum ball velocities, presented in graphical and tabular form, are found to be functions of both target distance and direction, increasing almost linearly with distance.
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