Advantages of velocity-based scaling for distant 3D manipulation

ABSTRACT

Immersive virtual environments (VEs) have the potential to offer rich three-dimensional interaction to users. In many instances, however, 3D interaction tasks are difficult due to both the imprecision of tracking devices and the inability of users to achieve and maintain precise hand positions in 3D space. One way to improve upon existing interaction techniques is to dynamically change the sensitivity of the interaction technique based on user input. Previous research has applied this principle to virtual hand-based manipulation techniques; when the user slows down the movement of her physical hand, the virtual hand slows down even more to allow precise manipulation. In this study we extend the prior research by applying the velocity-based scaling principle to HOMER, an existing at-a-distance manipulation technique based on ray-casting. The scaled HOMER technique offers the user the freedom to accomplish both long- and short-distance manipulation tasks with higher levels of precision without compromising speed. We present results from a user study that shows that the addition of scaling to HOMER significantly improves user performance on 3D manipulation tasks.

REFERENCES

• 1: Eric A. Bier, Snap-dragging in three dimensions, Proceedings of the 1990 symposium on Interactive 3D graphics, p.193-204, February 1990, Snowbird, Utah, United States
• 2: Doug A. Bowman , Larry F. Hodges, An evaluation of techniques for grabbing and manipulating remote objects in immersive virtual environments, Proceedings of the 1997 symposium on Interactive 3D graphics, p.35-ff., April 27-30, 1997, Providence, Rhode Island, United States [doi>10.1145/253284.253301]
• 3: Doug A. Bowman , Donald B. Johnson , Larry F. Hodges, Testbed evaluation of virtual environment interaction techniques, Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology, p.26-33, December 20-22, 1999, London, United Kingdom [doi>10.1145/323663.323667]
• 4: Doug A. Bowman , Ernst Kruijff , Joseph J. LaViola , Ivan Poupyrev, 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice, Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Redwood City, CA, 2004
• 5: Doug A. Bowman , Mehdi Setareh , Marcio S. Pinho , Ndiwalana Ali , Alex Kalita , Yunha Lee , John Lucas , Matthew Gracey , Malini Kothapalli , Qinwei Zhu , Ameya Datey , Pradeep Tumati, Virtual-SAP: An Immersive Tool for Visualizing the Response of Building Structures to Environmental Conditions, Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality 2003, p.243, March 22-26, 2003
• 6: Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. , Ming Ouh-Young , James J. Batter , P. Jerome Kilpatrick, Project GROPEHaptic displays for scientific visualization, Proceedings of the 17th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.177-185, September 1990, Dallas, TX, USA
• 7: Carolina Cruz-Neira , Daniel J. Sandin , Thomas A. DeFanti, Surround-screen projection-based virtual reality: the design and implementation of the CAVE, Proceedings of the 20th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.135-142, August 02-06, 0093, Anaheim, CA [doi>10.1145/166117.166134]
• 8: Scott Frees , G. Drew Kessler , Edwin Kay, PRISM interaction for enhancing control in immersive virtual environments, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), v.14 n.1, p.2-es, May 2007 [doi>10.1145/1229855.1229857]
• 9: John Kelso , Lance E. Arsenault , Ronald D. Kriz , Steven G. Satterfield, DIVERSE: A Framework for Building Extensible and Reconfigurable Device Independent Virtual Environments, Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality Conference 2002, p.183, March 24-28, 2002
• 10: Lindsey, P., and McLain-Kark, J. (1998). "A Comparison of Real World and Virtual World Interior Environments." Journal of Interior Design, 24(1), 27--39.
• 11: Mackenzie, I. S., and Riddersma, S. (1994). "Effects of output display and control-display gain on human performance in interactive systems." Behaviour & Information Technology, 13(5), 328--337.
• 12: Mark R. Mine , Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. , Carlo H. Sequin, Moving objects in space: exploiting proprioception in virtual-environment interaction, Proceedings of the 24th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.19-26, August 1997 [doi>10.1145/258734.258747]
• 13: Jeffrey S. Pierce , Randy Pausch, Comparing voodoo dolls and HOMER: exploring the importance of feedback in virtual environments, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Changing our world, changing ourselves, April 20-25, 2002, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [doi>10.1145/503376.503396]
• 14: Jeffrey S. Pierce , Brian C. Stearns , Randy Pausch, Voodoo dolls: seamless interaction at multiple scales in virtual environments, Proceedings of the 1999 symposium on Interactive 3D graphics, p.141-145, April 26-29, 1999, Atlanta, Georgia, United States [doi>10.1145/300523.300540]
• 15: Ivan Poupyrev , Mark Billinghurst , Suzanne Weghorst , Tadao Ichikawa, The go-go interaction technique: non-linear mapping for direct manipulation in VR, Proceedings of the 9th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, p.79-80, November 06-08, 1996, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/237091.237102]
• 16: Richard Stoakley , Matthew J. Conway , Randy Pausch, Virtual reality on a WIM: interactive worlds in miniature, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.265-272, May 07-11, 1995, Denver, Colorado, United States [doi>10.1145/223904.223938]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism

Keywords:
3D interaction, usability, user studies