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4Doodle: Two-handed Gestures for Immersive Sketching of Architectural Models

Fernando Fonseca, Maurício Sousa, Daniel Mendes, Alfredo Ferreira, Joaquim Jorge

TL;DR

A fully immersive environment using bi-manual gestures to sketch and create content freely in the virtual world using proxy geometry and a laser-like metaphor to draw content directly from models and create content surfaces is presented.

Abstract

Three-dimensional immersive sketching for content creation and modeling has been studied for some time. However, research in this domain mainly focused on CAVE-like scenarios. These setups can be expensive and offer a narrow interaction space. Building more affordable setups using head-mounted displays is possible, allowing greater immersion and a larger space for user physical movements. This paper presents a fully immersive environment using bi-manual gestures to sketch and create content freely in the virtual world. This approach can be applied to many scenarios, allowing people to express their ideas or review existing designs. To cope with known motor difficulties and inaccuracy of freehand 3D sketching, we explore proxy geometry and a laser-like metaphor to draw content directly from models and create content surfaces. Our current prototype offers 24 cubic meters for movement, limited by the room size. It features infinite virtual drawing space through pan and scale techniques and is larger than the typical 6-sided cave at a fraction of the cost. In a preliminary study conducted with architects and engineers, our system showed a clear promise as a tool for sketching and 3D content creation in virtual reality with a great emphasis on bi-manual gestures.

4Doodle: Two-handed Gestures for Immersive Sketching of Architectural Models

TL;DR

A fully immersive environment using bi-manual gestures to sketch and create content freely in the virtual world using proxy geometry and a laser-like metaphor to draw content directly from models and create content surfaces is presented.

Abstract

Three-dimensional immersive sketching for content creation and modeling has been studied for some time. However, research in this domain mainly focused on CAVE-like scenarios. These setups can be expensive and offer a narrow interaction space. Building more affordable setups using head-mounted displays is possible, allowing greater immersion and a larger space for user physical movements. This paper presents a fully immersive environment using bi-manual gestures to sketch and create content freely in the virtual world. This approach can be applied to many scenarios, allowing people to express their ideas or review existing designs. To cope with known motor difficulties and inaccuracy of freehand 3D sketching, we explore proxy geometry and a laser-like metaphor to draw content directly from models and create content surfaces. Our current prototype offers 24 cubic meters for movement, limited by the room size. It features infinite virtual drawing space through pan and scale techniques and is larger than the typical 6-sided cave at a fraction of the cost. In a preliminary study conducted with architects and engineers, our system showed a clear promise as a tool for sketching and 3D content creation in virtual reality with a great emphasis on bi-manual gestures.
Paper Structure (14 sections, 15 figures)

This paper contains 14 sections, 15 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Setup Overview
  4. 4Doodle
  5. Air Sketching
  6. Painter's Palette
  7. Grabbing the air
  8. Create and manipulate
  9. Preliminary Evaluation
  10. Apparatus
  11. Methodology
  12. Results
  13. Observations
  14. Conclusion and Future Work

Figures (15)

  • Figure 1: Our vision of the immersive solution for sketching on 3D content.
  • Figure 2: Our setup consists of an Oculus Rift (A), a Wiimote (B), and a ring wireless mouse (C). All these devices are tracked using markers.
  • Figure 3: user sketching a line in our system. A user is on the left, and his virtual point of view is on the right.
  • Figure 4: Two possibilities to place the proxy geometry plane: directly positioning it with the pen (A) or pointing at the desired surface (B).
  • Figure 5: Sketching on existing 3D model's surfaces using the laser tool.
  • ...and 10 more figures