Well, First of all let me clear it that, I am not talking about some ancestor of ours or anything related to them. I am posting this about a problem, I just encountered and I need your help in this thing. According to Wikipedia, Gorilla Arm's definition is as given below:
"Gorilla arm" was a side-effect that destroyed vertically-oriented touch-screens as a mainstream input technology despite a promising start in the early 1980s.[32]
Designers of touch-menu systems failed to notice that humans aren't designed to hold their arms in front of their faces making small motions. After more than a very few selections, the arm begins to feel sore, cramped, and oversized—the operator looks like a gorilla while using the touch screen and feels like one afterwards. This is now considered a classic cautionary tale to human-factors designers; "Remember the gorilla arm!" is shorthand for "How is this going to fly in real use?".
Gorilla arm is not a problem for specialist short-term-use uses, since they only involve brief interactions which do not last long enough to cause gorilla arm."
Well my problem is that I made this software, that makes use of a horizontal hand gesture in front of the web cam. This thing have similar physical movements involved what Wikipedia called as "vertically-oriented touch-screens".
While developing the application, I felt the similar "Gorilla Arm" but I thought that it's just some problem with my hand specifically and it won't be general. But now when I just passed through this, I think that it will be a serious problem for projects like this.
So I was wondering, if anyone can help me out on this thing. If you don't understand completely what I am saying, I will love to elaborate.
Please elaborate for this lay"woman". I would love to know more...a non techie description will be appreciated. :-)
ReplyDeleteFirst of all thanks a lot for taking interest.
ReplyDeleteI am glad someone commented.
Actually, when you move your arms in front of your face for quite precise movements, it begins to feel so heavy and sore, I made a computer software that was based on using the webcam as the method of inputs to the computer. So I did gestures in front of the webcam, which is quite similar to moving you hands in front of your face. And here is the problem, called Gorilla Arm. I wanted to ask some other way of providing input to the webcam, so that I don't have to use my hand away from my body.
One suggestion can be, I can use a horizontal pad like we use for mouse, and set the webcam above it. If you still have questions please ask, and you have any answer, please surprise me.
:)