SMART TOOLS FOR VIRTUAL REALITY BASED CAD

Usability in virtual reality based design tools (VRAD) is a major issue since its interaction techniques are not yet fully investigated. Human factors such as pointing precision, fatigue, hand vibrations, lack of limb support, and interaction anisotropy should be taken into account for a more effective interface as compared to the 2D. This work presents an ongoing study addressing human performances in VR during common CAD tasks: picking, pointing, and line drawing. Tests confirm performances reduction along the user’s head to hand direction, mainly due to occlusion and lack of appropriate feedback. Three virtual tools are here presented in order to overcome the interaction anisotropy: the “Ortho Tool”, the “Smart Transparency”, and the “Smart Object Snap”. The new interface has shown better user performances and improved model understanding. Results achieved in this work contribute not only toVRAD development, but also to other virtual reality applications, because their context can be easily extended.

[1]  Klaus-Peter Beier.  VIRTUAL REALITY IN AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING. , 1994 .

[2]  Ken Hinckley,et al.  A survey of design issues in spatial input , 1994, UIST '94.

[3]  Shumin Zhai,et al.  The “Silk Cursor”: investigating transparency for 3D target acquisition , 1994, CHI '94.

[4]  Kellogg S. Booth,et al.  A study of interactive 3D point location in a computer simulated virtual environment , 1997, VRST '97.

[5]  Frederick P. Brooks,et al.  Moving objects in space: exploiting proprioception in virtual-environment interaction , 1997, SIGGRAPH.

[6]  Ivan Poupyrev,et al.  A framework and testbed for studying manipulation techniques for immersive VR , 1997, VRST '97.

[7]  Shumin Zhai,et al.  Anisotropic human performance in six degree-of-freedom tracking: an evaluation of three-dimensional display and control interfaces , 1997, IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Part A.

[8]  Hujun Bao,et al.  Interactive task planning in virtual assembly , 1999, VRST '99.

[9]  Gerold Wesche,et al.  Conceptual free-form styling on the responsive workbench , 2000, VRST '00.

[10]  Dieter Schmalstieg,et al.  An open software architecture for virtual reality interaction , 2001, VRST '01.

[11]  Alexis Paljic,et al.  A Study of Distance of Manipulation on the Responsive Workbench , 2002 .

[12]  Hui Chen,et al.  Real-time haptic sculpting in virtual volume space , 2002, VRST '02.

[13]  Giuseppe Monno,et al.  3D POINTING IN VIRTUAL REALITY: EXPERIMENTAL STUDY , 2003 .

[14]  Tovi Grossman,et al.  Pointing at trivariate targets in 3D environments , 2004, CHI.

[15]  Dieter Schmalstieg,et al.  “Studierstube”: An environment for collaboration in augmented reality , 1998, Virtual Reality.