Improving haptic interaction in a virtual environment by exploiting proprioception

Abstract

3D environments are designed to be intuitive and easy to use. However, when defining interaction in 3D virtual environments, suitable paradigms for accessing objects and user interface elements are often difficult to determine. Several solutions currently exist, all with their strenghts and weaknesses, but due to the complexity of the human senses and technical and financial restrictions, none of them is ideal. In this paper, we describe a first step in our research investigating how 3D interaction can be improved by introducing a technique that uses proprioception together with realistic force feedback in order to more easily access objects and widgets in 3D space. In a user experiment, we also validate our newly proposed solution, and compare it to our earlier work.