3D/VR/AR User Interfaces

General 3D User Interfaces

One challenge in immersive systems is 3D interaction, as illustrated by comparing the performance of users with a mouse on a desktop to interaction in modern Virtual or Augmented Reality (VR/AR) systems. Targeted at making 3D and VR systems easier to use, this work presents a list of guidelines to facilitate 3D manipulation, each of which is based on previous research or evaluative studies. Recent work identifies 3D input devices that perform well for such tasks and discusses methods to evaluate 3D interaction. See also W. Stuerzlinger's talk on Towards Better 3D User Interfaces for an overview.

3D Pointing

Common 2D input devices, such as the mouse, outperform most 3D input devices on frequently used tasks, such as pointing, in 3D environments. This seems counterintuitive at first. One aspect of the problem is that simultaneous control of three (or more) degrees of freedom is more challenging for humans. (Laser) Ray-based pointing offers a reasonable compromise, as it requires mostly only control of two degrees of freedom. Other aspects pertain to differences in 2D and 3D input technologies, including variations in latency, jitter, and the effect of co-location of input and output. The selection of hidden objects is also a notable challenge. We have performed a series of experiments that explore and document the effects of each factor.