Developing effective navigation techniques in virtual 3D environments

As a result of the increasing use of three-dimensional environments and of frequently inefficient possibilities for navigation, a fundamental understanding of navigation is becoming ever more important, both for users as well as for developers of three-dimensional environments. To promote this understanding a rigorous model for navigation was developed. The navigation model contains the relevant factors of influence and determines quality criteria for an efficient navigation. The model is used in a practical study. In this study effective navigation techniques in the application field of teaching/learning environments for children of elementary schools are implemented and evaluated. The simple control of relevant parameters, made possible by the model, can be transferred easily to other ranges of application.

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