VR and Laser-Based Interaction in Virtual Environments Using a Dual-Purpose Interaction Metaphor

In this paper we present a dual-purpose interaction metaphor for desktop-based and virtual reality (VR) interaction in VR system environments. Many VR interaction techniques enable users to perform 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) manipulation tasks. However, designers of most GUIs have only standard desktop devices in mind for using them. Therefore porting desktop applications to VR systems often fails since no techniques exist for making the full functionality of the GUI accessible to the user. VR interaction techniques lack support for combining both VR and desktop-based interaction, e.g., the control of the operating system and 2D menu handling. In this paper we present a dualpurpose interaction metaphor based on laser pen interaction, which is capable of performing both desktop-based and VR interaction tasks.