Week 11 Summary
Pop Through Button Devices for VE Navigation and Interaction
-Robert C. Zeleznik , Joseph J. LaViola Jr., Daniel Acevedo Feliz, Daniel F. Keefe
This paper describes experiments with two novel input devices named Finger Sleeve and Trigger Gun. These devices are based on the concept of pop through buttons. Pop through buttons have two modes of activation, a light pressure activates the first mode of the button while a more firm pressing of the button activates a second mode. At the very least this technique increases the number of activation states within the same physical confines of two buttons. The authors also claim that such a two state interaction may be quite natural for many interaction techniques. The author’s also go into many details describing the aesthetic and design choices of the buttons and how they were placed in case of the finger sleeve and the trigger gun. These two devices were used to model different interaction scenarios in virtual environments. Techniques called Zoomback and Lasergrab help in the navigation of virtual environments. A light push of the button takes you to the place pointed by your finger. If the button is released in this state you get back to your original location else if it is pressed more firmly your location gets changed to the new location. The Snapshot example shows interaction with the finger sleeve for taking pictures in a virtual gallery. A light press brings up a cropping rectangle which can be moved closer or farther from the user by moving the hand and covering more or less area of the gallery. A firm press takes a photograph. The last example discussed is CavePainter which allows artists to create 3D paintings. The original cave painter relied on Pinch gloves for the interaction. The author’s have implemented a version for the Finger Sleeve. If the finger sleeve is close to the brush the buttons affect the color and size of the brush while if it is far away it can be used for scaling, rotation and translation of the world space.
Although, I can see the slight benefit of the proposed interaction, I really doubt it can be applied to more than the cases described in the paper without the loss of naturality of the interaction. The cave painter application is handled quite gracefully by the author’s but the struggle to fit this technique can be realized from it. I own a Nikon camera that has a slight press to focus and hard press to capture functionality. That peculiar functionality has been the reason for missing some of the better moments of my life.
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