The activation of modality in virtual objects assembly

Guillaume Rivière (1, 2) , Nadine Couture (1, 2) , Patrick Reuter (1, 3)

1 LaBRI - Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique
2 ESTIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
3 IPARLA - Visualization and manipulation of complex data on wireless mobile devices

Manual assembly of virtual 3D objects is required in several application fields. We focus on tangible user interfaces which offer the opportunity to the user to perform virtual assemblies efficiently and easily. In each hand, the user manipulates a tracked prop, and the translations and rotations are directly mapped to the corresponding virtual object. However, with such interfaces, both hands are requisitioned, and the user cannot drop the props without changing the action or the expected results. We list and discuss the choice of four possible modalities to activate/deactivate the assembly modality: vocal modality, gestural modality, buttons, and foot pedals. We conclude that when using the foot pedals, the user's gesture is closer to the real-world behaviour.

Mots clés: Clutching; Virtual assembly; CHI; TUI; Modality

Domaines: Interface homme-machine [cs.HC]

Guillaume Rivière, Nadine Couture, Patrick Reuter. The activation of modality in virtual objects assembly. Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces, 2010, 3 (3), pp.189-196. ⟨10.1007/s12193-010-0038-0⟩. ⟨hal-00465155v2⟩