3D Interaction Techniques in Multi-User Virtual Reality : towards scalable templates and implementation patterns for cooperative interfaces

Multi-user projection systems provide a coherent 3D interaction space for multiple co-located users that facilitates mutual awareness, full-body interaction, and the coordination of activities. The users perceive the shared scene from their respective viewpoints and can directly interact with the 3D content.This thesis reports on novel interaction patterns for collaborative 3D interaction for local and distributed user groups based on such multi-user projection environments. A particular focus of our developments lies in the provision of multiple independent interaction territories in our workspaces and their tight integration into collaborative workflows. The motivation for such multi-focus workspaces is grounded in research on social cooperation patterns, specifically in the requirement for supporting phases of loose and tight collaboration and the emergence of dedicated orking territories for private usage and public exchange. We realized independent interaction territories in the form of handheld virtual viewing windows and multiple co-located hardware displays in a joint workspace. They provide independent views of a shared virtual environment and serve as access points for the exploration and manipulation of the 3D content. Their tight integration into our workspace supports fluent transitions between individual work and joint user engagement. The different affordances of various displays in an exemplary workspace consisting of a large 3D wall, a 3D tabletop, and handheld virtual viewing windows, promote different usage scenarios, for instance for views from an egocentric perspective, miniature scene representations, close-up views, or storage and transfer areas. This work shows that this versatile workspace can make the cooperation of multiple people in joint tasks more effective, e.g. by parallelizing activities, distributing subtasks, and providing mutual support.In order to create, manage, and share virtual viewing windows, this thesis presents the interaction technique of Photoportals, a tangible interface based on the metaphor of digital photography. They serve as configurable viewing territories and enable the individual examination of scene details as well as the immediate sharing of the prepared views. Photoportals are specifically designed to complement other interface facets and provide extended functionality for scene navigation, object manipulation, and for the creation of temporal recordings of activities in the virtual scene.A further objective of this work is the realization of a coherent interaction space for direct 3D input across the independent interaction territories in multi-display setups. This requires the simultaneous consideration of user input in several potential interaction windows as well as configurable disambiguation schemes for the implicit selection of distinct interaction contexts. We generalized the required implementation structures into a high-level software pattern and demonstrated its versatility by means of various multi-context 3D interaction tools.Additionally, this work tackles specific problems related to group navigation in multiuser projection systems. Joint navigation of a collocated group of users can lead to unintentional collisions when passing narrow scene sections. In this context, we suggest various solutions that prevent individual collisions during group navigation and discuss their effect on the perceived integrity of the travel group and the 3D scene. For collaboration scenarios involving distributed user groups, we furthermore explored different configurations for joint and individual travel.Last but not least, this thesis provides detailed information and implementation templates for the realization of the proposed interaction techniques and collaborative workspaces in scenegraph-based VR systems. These contributions to the abstraction of specific interaction patterns, such as group navigation and multi-window interaction, facilitate their reuse in other virtual reality systems and their adaptation to further collaborative scenarios.