Class FittsTrace

java.lang.Object

java.awt.Component

java.awt.Container

java.awt.Window

java.awt.Frame

javax.swing.JFrame

FittsTrace

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.awt.event.ActionListener, java.awt.event.ItemListener, java.awt.image.ImageObserver, java.awt.MenuContainer, java.io.Serializable, java.util.EventListener, javax.accessibility.Accessible, javax.swing.RootPaneContainer, javax.swing.WindowConstants, PanZoomPanel.PanZoomPanelListener

public class FittsTrace
extends javax.swing.JFrame
implements java.awt.event.ActionListener, java.awt.event.ItemListener, PanZoomPanel.PanZoomPanelListener

FittsTrace

Summary

• Utility software to plot the trace data in the sd3 files created by FittsTask.

Related References

The following are examples of published figures showing trace data that were gathered using a version of this software:

• Figure 5 in "TBS3: Two-Bar Single-Switch Scanning for Target Selection", by Raynal and MacKenzie (ICCHP 2022)
• Figure 7 in "FittsFarm: Comparing Children's Drag-and-Drop Performance Using Finger and Stylus Input on Tablets", by Cassidy, Read, and MacKenzie (INTERACT 2019)
• Figure 6 in "Comparison of Two Methods to Control the Mouse Using a Keypad", by Felzer, MacKenzie, and Magee (ICCHP 2016)
• Figure 9 and Figure 10 in "Camera Mouse + ClickerAID: Dwell vs. Single-muscle Click Actuation in Mouse-replacement Interfaces", by Magee, Felzer, and MacKenzie (HCII 2015)
• Figure 13 in "Position vs. Velocity Control for Tilt-based Interaction", by Teather and MacKenzie (GI 2014
• Figure 9 and Figure 11 in "FittsTilt: The Application of Fitts' Law to Tilt-based Interaction", by MacKenzie and Teather (NordiCHI 2012)
• Figure 15 in "Evaluating Eye Tracking Systems for Computer Input", by MacKenzie (in Majaranta, P., Aoki, H., Donegan, M., Hansen, D. W., Hansen, J. P., Hyrskykari, A., & Räihä, K.-J. (Eds.). (2012). Gaze interaction and applications of eye tracking: Advances in assistive technologies, pp. 205-225. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.)
• Figure 10 and Figure 11 in "The Trackball Controller: Improving the Analog Stick", by Natapov and MacKenzie ( FuturePlay 2010)

Getting Started

FittsTrace is launched from GoFitts by selecting FittsTrace and clicking "Go" (below, left). FittsTrace begins with a launch panel (below, centre). Clicking "Open..." opens a file chooser showing all the sd3 files in the current directory (below, right). Select an sd3 file and click "Open". (Click images to enlarge.)

Input Data Format

The sd3 data processed by this application must be in a specific format, as produced by FittsTask. The first two lines are for information only and are discarded. In the example sd3 file (see below), the first line is a title and the second line contains comma-delimited labels identifying the rest of the data:

 
     application name
     participant code
     condition code
     session code
     group code
     task type - 1D or 2D
     block code
     sequence - sequence number
     A - target amplitude (diameter of the layout circle in pixels)
     W - target width (diameter of target circle in pixels)
     trial - trial number within the sequence
     from_x - x coordinate of beginning of trial
     from_y - y coordinate of beginning of trial
     to_x - centre x coordinate of target
     to_y - centre y coordinate of target
     identifier ("t=", "x=", or "y=")
 

The trace data begin after the first two lines just noted. Each trace is encoded in three consecutive lines: (i) the timestamps, (ii) the x samples, and (iii) the y samples. Click here for an example of an sd3 data file.

Example Traces

The following screen snap shows the trace data for one sequence of trials in the sd3 example file:

Use the "Previous" and "Next" buttons to advance the view to the previous or next sequence (above, right).

As well as identifying the test conditions, the UI displays the performance data associated with the traces, including the mean movement time, error rate, throughput, and the mean of the accuracy measures. (The latter are described in Accuracy Measures for Evaluating Computer Pointing Devices by MacKenzie, Kauppinen, and Silfverberg (2001); see as well the API for the AccuracyMeasures class.)

The "Trials" mode checkbox along the bottom of the UI allows the trace data to be inspected for individual trials (below, left). To view the actual trace points, select the show "Points" checkbox (below, right).

In trial mode, the performance data correspond to individual trials, rather than a sequence of trials.

Panning and Zooming

FittsTrace supports panning and zooming to get different perspectives on the trace data. Zooming is performed by pressing the CTRL key and moving the mouse wheel or by pressing CTRL along with "]" or "+" (zoom in) or "[" or "-" (zoom out). Panning is performed by moving the mouse wheel, dragging the trace panel, or pressing the arrow keys (with or without CTRL). For example, consider the following display of trace data (left) and the same data zoomed in (right):

The current zoom factor is shown in the "Scale" textbox along the bottom of the UI. A closer look at the trace for one of the trials is possible by zooming in further, perhaps with "Show Points" enabled:

Clicking the "Reset" button or entering CTRL-0 ("zero") restores the view to the home position with Scale = 1.0.

Author:

Scott MacKenzie, 2009-2025

See Also:

Serialized Form

Nested Class Summary

Nested classes/interfaces inherited from class java.awt.Window

java.awt.Window.Type

Nested classes/interfaces inherited from class java.awt.Component

java.awt.Component.BaselineResizeBehavior

Field Summary

Fields inherited from class javax.swing.JFrame

EXIT_ON_CLOSE

Fields inherited from class java.awt.Frame

CROSSHAIR_CURSOR, DEFAULT_CURSOR, E_RESIZE_CURSOR, HAND_CURSOR, ICONIFIED, MAXIMIZED_BOTH, MAXIMIZED_HORIZ, MAXIMIZED_VERT, MOVE_CURSOR, N_RESIZE_CURSOR, NE_RESIZE_CURSOR, NORMAL, NW_RESIZE_CURSOR, S_RESIZE_CURSOR, SE_RESIZE_CURSOR, SW_RESIZE_CURSOR, TEXT_CURSOR, W_RESIZE_CURSOR, WAIT_CURSOR

Fields inherited from class java.awt.Component

BOTTOM_ALIGNMENT, CENTER_ALIGNMENT, LEFT_ALIGNMENT, RIGHT_ALIGNMENT, TOP_ALIGNMENT

Fields inherited from interface javax.swing.WindowConstants

DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE, DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE, HIDE_ON_CLOSE

Fields inherited from interface java.awt.image.ImageObserver

ABORT, ALLBITS, ERROR, FRAMEBITS, HEIGHT, PROPERTIES, SOMEBITS, WIDTH

Constructor Summary

Constructors

Constructor and Description
FittsTrace(java.io.File currentDirectoryArg)

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
void	actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent ae)
javax.sound.sampled.Clip	initSound(java.lang.String soundFile)
void	itemStateChanged(java.awt.event.ItemEvent ie)
void	onPanZoomPanelAction(PanZoomPanelEvent pzpe)
void	playSound(javax.sound.sampled.Clip c)

Methods inherited from class javax.swing.JFrame

getAccessibleContext, getContentPane, getDefaultCloseOperation, getGlassPane, getGraphics, getJMenuBar, getLayeredPane, getRootPane, getTransferHandler, isDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated, remove, repaint, setContentPane, setDefaultCloseOperation, setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated, setGlassPane, setIconImage, setJMenuBar, setLayeredPane, setLayout, setTransferHandler, update

Methods inherited from class java.awt.Frame

addNotify, getCursorType, getExtendedState, getFrames, getIconImage, getMaximizedBounds, getMenuBar, getState, getTitle, isResizable, isUndecorated, remove, removeNotify, setBackground, setCursor, setExtendedState, setMaximizedBounds, setMenuBar, setOpacity, setResizable, setShape, setState, setTitle, setUndecorated

Methods inherited from class java.awt.Window

addPropertyChangeListener, addPropertyChangeListener, addWindowFocusListener, addWindowListener, addWindowStateListener, applyResourceBundle, applyResourceBundle, createBufferStrategy, createBufferStrategy, dispose, getBackground, getBufferStrategy, getFocusableWindowState, getFocusCycleRootAncestor, getFocusOwner, getFocusTraversalKeys, getIconImages, getInputContext, getListeners, getLocale, getModalExclusionType, getMostRecentFocusOwner, getOpacity, getOwnedWindows, getOwner, getOwnerlessWindows, getShape, getToolkit, getType, getWarningString, getWindowFocusListeners, getWindowListeners, getWindows, getWindowStateListeners, hide, isActive, isAlwaysOnTop, isAlwaysOnTopSupported, isAutoRequestFocus, isFocusableWindow, isFocusCycleRoot, isFocused, isLocationByPlatform, isOpaque, isShowing, isValidateRoot, pack, paint, postEvent, removeWindowFocusListener, removeWindowListener, removeWindowStateListener, reshape, setAlwaysOnTop, setAutoRequestFocus, setBounds, setBounds, setCursor, setFocusableWindowState, setFocusCycleRoot, setIconImages, setLocation, setLocation, setLocationByPlatform, setLocationRelativeTo, setMinimumSize, setModalExclusionType, setSize, setSize, setType, setVisible, show, toBack, toFront

Methods inherited from class java.awt.Container

add, add, add, add, add, addContainerListener, applyComponentOrientation, areFocusTraversalKeysSet, countComponents, deliverEvent, doLayout, findComponentAt, findComponentAt, getAlignmentX, getAlignmentY, getComponent, getComponentAt, getComponentAt, getComponentCount, getComponents, getComponentZOrder, getContainerListeners, getFocusTraversalPolicy, getInsets, getLayout, getMaximumSize, getMinimumSize, getMousePosition, getPreferredSize, insets, invalidate, isAncestorOf, isFocusCycleRoot, isFocusTraversalPolicyProvider, isFocusTraversalPolicySet, layout, list, list, locate, minimumSize, paintComponents, preferredSize, print, printComponents, remove, removeAll, removeContainerListener, setComponentZOrder, setFocusTraversalKeys, setFocusTraversalPolicy, setFocusTraversalPolicyProvider, setFont, transferFocusDownCycle, validate

Methods inherited from class java.awt.Component

action, add, addComponentListener, addFocusListener, addHierarchyBoundsListener, addHierarchyListener, addInputMethodListener, addKeyListener, addMouseListener, addMouseMotionListener, addMouseWheelListener, bounds, checkImage, checkImage, contains, contains, createImage, createImage, createVolatileImage, createVolatileImage, disable, dispatchEvent, enable, enable, enableInputMethods, firePropertyChange, firePropertyChange, firePropertyChange, firePropertyChange, firePropertyChange, firePropertyChange, getBaseline, getBaselineResizeBehavior, getBounds, getBounds, getColorModel, getComponentListeners, getComponentOrientation, getCursor, getDropTarget, getFocusListeners, getFocusTraversalKeysEnabled, getFont, getFontMetrics, getForeground, getGraphicsConfiguration, getHeight, getHierarchyBoundsListeners, getHierarchyListeners, getIgnoreRepaint, getInputMethodListeners, getInputMethodRequests, getKeyListeners, getLocation, getLocation, getLocationOnScreen, getMouseListeners, getMouseMotionListeners, getMousePosition, getMouseWheelListeners, getName, getParent, getPeer, getPropertyChangeListeners, getPropertyChangeListeners, getSize, getSize, getTreeLock, getWidth, getX, getY, gotFocus, handleEvent, hasFocus, imageUpdate, inside, isBackgroundSet, isCursorSet, isDisplayable, isDoubleBuffered, isEnabled, isFocusable, isFocusOwner, isFocusTraversable, isFontSet, isForegroundSet, isLightweight, isMaximumSizeSet, isMinimumSizeSet, isPreferredSizeSet, isValid, isVisible, keyDown, keyUp, list, list, list, location, lostFocus, mouseDown, mouseDrag, mouseEnter, mouseExit, mouseMove, mouseUp, move, nextFocus, paintAll, prepareImage, prepareImage, printAll, removeComponentListener, removeFocusListener, removeHierarchyBoundsListener, removeHierarchyListener, removeInputMethodListener, removeKeyListener, removeMouseListener, removeMouseMotionListener, removeMouseWheelListener, removePropertyChangeListener, removePropertyChangeListener, repaint, repaint, repaint, requestFocus, requestFocusInWindow, resize, resize, revalidate, setComponentOrientation, setDropTarget, setEnabled, setFocusable, setFocusTraversalKeysEnabled, setForeground, setIgnoreRepaint, setLocale, setMaximumSize, setName, setPreferredSize, show, size, toString, transferFocus, transferFocusBackward, transferFocusUpCycle

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Methods inherited from interface java.awt.MenuContainer

getFont, postEvent

Constructor Detail

FittsTrace

public FittsTrace(java.io.File currentDirectoryArg)

Method Detail

itemStateChanged

public void itemStateChanged(java.awt.event.ItemEvent ie)

Specified by:

itemStateChanged in interface java.awt.event.ItemListener

actionPerformed

public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent ae)

Specified by:

actionPerformed in interface java.awt.event.ActionListener

onPanZoomPanelAction

public void onPanZoomPanelAction(PanZoomPanelEvent pzpe)

Specified by:

onPanZoomPanelAction in interface PanZoomPanel.PanZoomPanelListener

initSound

public javax.sound.sampled.Clip initSound(java.lang.String soundFile)

playSound

public void playSound(javax.sound.sampled.Clip c)