Virtuality Builder II: on the topic of 3D interaction

Abstract

Most of today's user interfaces for 3D graphics systems still predominantly use 2D widgets, even though current graphical hardware should make it possible to create applications in which the user directly manipulates aspects of three-dimensional synthetic worlds. The difficulties associated with achieving the key goal of immersion has led the research in virtual environments to concentrate far more on the development of new input and display devices than on higher-level techniques for 3D interaction. It is only recently that interaction with synthetic worlds has tried to go beyond straightforward interpretation of physical device data. The design space for 3D interaction tools and techniques remains mostly unexplored, while being far larger than in standard 2D applications. Moreover, as stated by Myers, "the only reliable way to generate quality interfaces is to test prototypes with users and modify the design based on their comments". The creation of complex interactive applications is an inherently iterative process that requires user interface tools, such as toolkits or frameworks. The lack of experience in 3D interfaces makes it extremely difficult to design 3D interface toolkits or frameworks. We believe that offering the possibility to rapidly prototype and test novel interaction techniques should be the primary goal of such tools. It is therefore more important for these tools to provide a wide range of interaction components, than to enforce a particular interface style. In this paper we present the Virtuality Builder II (VB2) framework developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology for the construction of 3D interactive applications. First, we'll give an overview of the design concepts of VB2. Next, we'll concentrate on how users interact with dynamic models through direct manipulation, gestures, and virtual tools.