Image Plane

Original Design

The Image Plane technique is a cool method for selection in Virtual Reality. The user selects an object with a pointing gesture and selects it by performing a gesture with the other hand. Afterwards he is able to manipulate the selected object in size, rotation and position.

User Perspective

In the original Image Plane design there have been four different pointing gestures, Head Crusher, Sticky Finger, Lifting Palm and Framing Hands.
In the Head Crusher gesture the user forms a window the the thumb and and forefinger around the desired object and aims at it through the window. The object will be selected with a selection gesture performed by the other hand. The Sticky Finger is a pointing gesture. The object is selected by a ray from the eyes through the finger tip. To select an object with the Lifting Palm technique the user opens his hands with the palm upturned. The object positioned above the palm will be selected. The Framing Hands form a window with both hands and the object inside will be selected.

Technical Details

The required hardware are data-gloves to track the hand positions and rotations as well as head tracking to determine the ray start-position.

Our Realization

User Perspective

For our purposes we chose the Head Crusher technique.
Selection:
To select an object the user performs the Head Crusher technique similar to the one in the original design. Once the right object is selected the use may change into manipulation mode by performing a grasping gesture with the other hand.
Manipulation:
By grabbing the object with both hands the user can change the object's position and scale the object by varying the distance between the hands. To rotate the object the user specifies the rotation center with a grasping gesture and moves the other hand around it.

Technical Details

We use ARTpro for hand and head tracking and InstantReality as VR-Framework.

Evaluation (details here)

Easiness:	★★★☆☆	(3.0)
Fatigue:	★★★☆☆	(2.64)
Fun:	★★★★☆	(3.71)
Learnability:	★★★☆☆	(3.71)
Raslism:	★★★☆☆	(3.64)

References

1. Image Plane Interaction Techniques In 3D Immersive Environments (1997). Jeffrey S. Pierce, Andrew Forsberg, Matthew J. Conway, Seung Hong, Robert Zeleznik, Mark R. Mine.