Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

HyFinBall: a Hybrid User Interface for Coordinated 2D+3D Visualization in Semi-Immersive VR

Isaac Cho, Zachary Wartell

TL;DR

HyFinBall introduces a hybrid user interface that unifies 6DOF handheld devices, planar-3DOF input, finger-tracking, and multi-touch for coordinated 2D+3D visualization in desktop VR. Through two controlled experiments, it demonstrates faster cross-dimensional task performance and reduced fatigue compared to single-device baselines, by enabling automatic mode-switching and a palming technique for multi-task scenarios. The findings support the practicality of hybrid spatial input for complex visual analytics and point to future work on robust 3D finger tracking and broader hardware integration. Overall, HyFinBall offers a promising approach to minimize device-switch penalties while leveraging the strengths of each input modality in hybrid visualization environments.

Abstract

Sophisticated 3D visualization applications usually provide coordinated 2D and 3D views. Normally 3D input device is used for 3D tasks since they perform better than traditional 2D input devices. However, they do not perform better for 2D tasks. This paper presents a bimanual hybrid user interface that supports four interaction modes: a dual 6-degree-of-freedom (DOF) input device mode, a dual planar constrained 3DOF input device mode, a dual 2-finger multi-touch mode, and 3D hand and finger gestures. The application is a multi-dimensional visualization with coordinated 3D and 2D views on a desktop VR system. The input devices are buttonballs with seamless switching between 3D and 2D device modes, as well as between free-hand finger input and device usage. The 3D and 2D device mode switch automatically switches a buttonball's visual representation between a 3D cursor and a 2D cursor while changing the available user interaction techniques between 3D and 2D interaction techniques to interact with the coordinated views. The paper also provides two formal user studies to evaluate HyFinBall for various dimensional tasks, including 3D, 2D, and cross-dimensional tasks. Our experimental results show the benefits of the HyFinBall interface for cross-dimensional tasks that require 3D and 2D interactions.

HyFinBall: a Hybrid User Interface for Coordinated 2D+3D Visualization in Semi-Immersive VR

TL;DR

HyFinBall introduces a hybrid user interface that unifies 6DOF handheld devices, planar-3DOF input, finger-tracking, and multi-touch for coordinated 2D+3D visualization in desktop VR. Through two controlled experiments, it demonstrates faster cross-dimensional task performance and reduced fatigue compared to single-device baselines, by enabling automatic mode-switching and a palming technique for multi-task scenarios. The findings support the practicality of hybrid spatial input for complex visual analytics and point to future work on robust 3D finger tracking and broader hardware integration. Overall, HyFinBall offers a promising approach to minimize device-switch penalties while leveraging the strengths of each input modality in hybrid visualization environments.

Abstract

Sophisticated 3D visualization applications usually provide coordinated 2D and 3D views. Normally 3D input device is used for 3D tasks since they perform better than traditional 2D input devices. However, they do not perform better for 2D tasks. This paper presents a bimanual hybrid user interface that supports four interaction modes: a dual 6-degree-of-freedom (DOF) input device mode, a dual planar constrained 3DOF input device mode, a dual 2-finger multi-touch mode, and 3D hand and finger gestures. The application is a multi-dimensional visualization with coordinated 3D and 2D views on a desktop VR system. The input devices are buttonballs with seamless switching between 3D and 2D device modes, as well as between free-hand finger input and device usage. The 3D and 2D device mode switch automatically switches a buttonball's visual representation between a 3D cursor and a 2D cursor while changing the available user interaction techniques between 3D and 2D interaction techniques to interact with the coordinated views. The paper also provides two formal user studies to evaluate HyFinBall for various dimensional tasks, including 3D, 2D, and cross-dimensional tasks. Our experimental results show the benefits of the HyFinBall interface for cross-dimensional tasks that require 3D and 2D interactions.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 19 sections, 7 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background and prior work
  3. Hyfinball: a hybrid user interface
  4. DIEM-VR with 6DOF and planar-3DOF Modes
  5. Fatigue - Elbows-Resting vs. Hands-Resting
  6. HyFinBall+Finger-Tracking
  7. Experiment 1: 6DOF and planar-3DOF mode switch
  8. Pilot Study
  9. Participants and Design
  10. Results
  11. Quantitative
  12. 2D Tasks
  13. Qualitative
  14. Experiment 2: Multi-Touch While Palming
  15. Participants
  16. ...and 4 more sections

Figures (7)

  • Figure 1: HyFinBall supports 6DOF isotonic input (A), planar-3DOF input (B), 3D hand and finger tracking and gesture (C), and multi-touch (D). Note, in these photos, the horizontal display is disabled to emphasize hand posture. In a running application, it would display 2D graphics (see Figure 2).
  • Figure 2: HyFinBall UI: Fish-tank VR Setup (A) Screen capture of vertical display (B) and Horizontal Display (C).
  • Figure 3: Trials and Tasks
  • Figure 4: Trials and Windows
  • Figure 5: Task completion time of UI condition for tasks. Error bars indicate $\pm$1.0 standard error
  • ...and 2 more figures