In this paper, we propose a new interface for virtual reality headset: a touchpad in front of the headset. To demonstrate the feasibility of the front touch interface, we built a prototype device, explored VR UI design space expansion, and performed various user studies. We started with preliminary tests to see how intuitively and accurately people can interact with the front touchpad. Then, we further experimented various user interfaces such as a binary selection, a typical menu layout, and a keyboard. Two-Finger and Drag-n-Tap were also explored to find the appropriate selection technique. As a low-cost, light-weight, and in low power budget technology, a touch sensor can make an ideal interface for mobile headset. Also, front touch area can be large enough to allow wide range of interaction types such as multi-finger interactions. With this novel front touch interface, we paved a way to new virtual reality interaction methods.
There are a plethora of research and industry products on virtual reality devices and interactions. However, an ability to provide precise and intuitive input signal is still identified as an issue among the VR users @cite_23 . In this section, we address how prior studies approached to solve selection tasks, especially with the menu interface, and text-entry.
@cite_23
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Virtual Reality (VR) technology holds promise as a virtual prototyping tool for mechanical assembly; however, several developmental challenges still need to be addressed before virtual prototyping applications can successfully be integrated into the product realization process. This paper describes the development of SHARP (System for Haptic Assembly & Realistic Prototyping), a portable VR interface for virtual assembly. SHARP uses physically-based modeling for simulating realistic part-to-part and hand-to-part interactions in virtual environments. A dual handed haptic interface for realistic part interaction using the PHANToM® haptic devices is presented. The capability of creating subassemblies enhances the application’s ability to handle a wide variety of assembly scenarios. Swept volumes are implemented for addressing maintainability issues and a network module is added for communicating with different VR systems at dispersed geographic locations. Support for various types of VR systems allows an easy integration of SHARP into the product realization process resulting in faster product development, faster identification of assembly and design issues and a more efficient and less costly product design process. An increase number of gesture sensors and AR(augmented reality) displays are emerging these years. There are more and more study working on spatial interaction. In this work, we focus on evaluating the feasibility of hand-based interaction designed for AR glasses to do basic manipulation on 3D virtual objects in AR applications with current interaction technology. We design a user study with 10 volunteers to discuss whether and how to use natural user interfaces like gestures, with the help of 3D menus, to finish the tasks of manipulating AR scenes. The interface including 3D menus presents the advantages of usability and merits of intuition; However, it also exposes some issues like ergonomic discomfort and limitation like imprecise input. So our results indicate the kind of interactive device and technology are valuable in natural interaction without extra knowledge, though they are limited in serious applications now. Virtual reality (VR) technology holds promise as a virtual prototyping (VP) tool for mechanical assembly; however, several developmental challenges still need to be addressed before VP applications can successfully be integrated into the product realization process. This paper describes the development of System for Haptic Assembly and Realistic Prototyping (SHARP), a portable virtual assembly system. SHARP uses physics-based modeling for simulating realistic part-to-part and hand-to-part interactions in virtual environments. A dual-handed haptic interface for a realistic part interaction using the PHANToM® haptic devices is presented. The capability of creating subassemblies enhances the application’s ability to handle a wide variety of assembly scenarios at the part level as well as at the subassembly level. Swept volumes are implemented for addressing maintainability issues, and a network module is added for communicating with different VR systems at dispersed geographic locations. Support for various types of VR systems allows an easy integration of SHARP into the product realization process, resulting in faster product development, faster identification of assembly and design issues, and a more efficient and less costly product design process. The use of virtual reality (VR) in interactive design and manufacture has been researched extensively but its practical application in industry is still very much in its infancy. Indeed one would have expected that, after some 30 years of research, commercial applications of interactive design or manufacturing planning and analysis would be widespread throughout the product design domain. Similarly, investigations into virtual environments (VE) for assembly and disassembly tasks have been carried out for many years. Given the availability of moderately-priced high performance computing technology, many of these virtual manufacturing interfaces which only stimulate the visual senses – have made actual physical contact during product development an increasingly rare occurrence.