1. [Publications](/publications) 2. Mouse Sensitivity in First-person Targeting Tasks # Mouse Sensitivity in First-person Targeting Tasks ![](/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/publications/mousesense.png?itok=8BiZJISc) Despite billions of hours of play and copious discussion online, mouse sensitivity recommendations for first-person targeting tasks vary by a factor of 10x or more and remain an active topic of debate in both competitive and recreational gaming communities.Inspired by previous academic literature in pointer-based gain optimization, we conduct the first user study of mouse sensitivity in first person targeting tasks, reporting a statistically significant range of optimal values in both task completion time and throughput. Due to inherent incompatibility (i.e., lack of convert-ability) between sensitivity metrics adopted for prior pointer-based gain literature and those describing first-person targeting, we provide the first analytically demonstrated, statistically significant optimal sensitivity range useful for first-person camera controls. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this optimal sensitivity range arises (at least in part) from a speed-precision trade-off impacted by spatial task difficulty, similar to results reported in pointer-based sensitivity literature previously. ## Authors [Ben Boudaoud](/person/ben-boudaoud) [Josef Spjut](/person/josef-spjut) [Joohwan Kim](/person/joohwan-kim) ## Publication Date Sunday, August 21, 2022 ## Published in [IEEE Conference on Games](https://ieee-cog.org/2022/) ## Research Area [Esports](/research-area/esports) [Human Computer Interaction](/research-area/human-computer-interaction) ## Uploaded Files [Author Preprint](https://d1qx31qr3h6wln.cloudfront.net/publications/IEEE%20CoG%20%28Conference%29%20Mouse%20Sensitivity.pdf "Open file in new window")1.52 MB ## Copyright This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to .