Evaluation of Multi-Touch Techniques for Physically Simulated Virtual Object Manipulations in 3D Space

Manipulation of objects in 3D space is not always a trivial task. When dealing with touchscreens, finding the correct set of mappings and interactions in three dimensions becomes even more of an issue. Current techniques evaluate 3D interaction regardless of physical properties of our world, aiming for task optimization instead of realism. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate three different types of 3D object manipulation techniques using multitouch surfaces when the environment performs with a realistic physics behavior. The task used in the interface evaluation consists of organized objects in a box in a prespecified way. Our results show that users tend to leverage from the physical properties of the environment to help them manipulate objects. Hence, the interface design that best approximates real-world manipulation performed best.