Aircraft Video – Cursor movements don’t suggest VFX

If you look at the videos when the user is scrolling, the movements are not typical of a user using a mouse. Nor a trackpad for that matter. There’s odd acceleration and overshooting of the target, and very straight movements.

The movements are typical of a ‘strain gauge’ type joystick. These are similar to the nub you get on Lenovo/Thinkpad laptops. You apply pressure in one direction, the cursor moves there, you push too hard, then push back the other way. Typically using just a thumb or single finger.

I know from experience of building simulators these are used on aircraft to control cursor movements on in-cockpit system – you can’t realistically use a mouse on an aircraft. They can be very small and have minimal deflection, so perfect for aircraft.

I imagine a defence contractor would also use a strain gauge joystick on the ‘satellite image viewing terminal’ for a number of reasons – it’s technology they are familiar with, less desk space, GUI isn’t the main focus of the UI, mice go missing.

This also explains the ‘cursor drift’ the the videos show. If they aren’t calibrated, they drift.

If my thoughts here are correct, then whoever ‘faked’ this video went a very long way to think about the input device that they might use on this sort of terminal.