From Pegs to Pixels: A Comparative Analysis of the Nine Hole Peg Test and a Digital Copy Drawing Test for Fine Motor Control Assessment

Abstract

User interaction with digital systems requires Fine Motor Control (FMC), especially if the interfaces are complex or require high fidelity and fine-grained interactions. Despite its importance, Fine Motor Control is often overlooked in interactive system design, partly because of its complex assessment. Measuring changes in fine motor abilities due to prolonged use or fatigue currently requires repeated manual testing. This paper analyzes the concept of using the digital mobile devices’ input behavior to assess the user’s Fine Motor Control. For this, we show that Fine Motor Control can be assessed for touch and stylus-based interaction with a digital mobile system. We conducted a user study, where participants performed a Nine Hole Peg Test and a predefined Copy Drawing Test before and after exercises that affect fine motor skills. Based on this data, we investigated how metrics such as pressure, velocity, and entropy for touch and stylus input can be used to predict Fine Motor Control.