Exploration of virtual environments on tablet: comparison between tactile and tangible interaction techniques

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary study which aims to investigate the tangible navigation in 3D Virtual Environments with new tablets (ex. Google Tango) that provide a self-contained 3D full tracking (ex. Google Tango, Intel RealSense). The tangible navigation was compared with tactile navigation techniques used in standard 3D applications (ex. video games, CAD, data visualization). Four conditions were compared: classic multi-touch interaction, tactile interaction with sticks, tangible interaction with a 1:2.5 scale factor and tangible interaction with a 1:5 scale factor. The study focuses on the subjective evaluation users make of the different interaction techniques in terms of usability and acceptability, and the fidelity of representation of the explored scene. Participants were asked to explore a virtual appartment using one of the four interaction techniques. Then, they were requested to draw a 2D sketch map of the explored appartment and to complete a questionnaire of usability and acceptabilty. In order to go further into the investigation, the participant's activity has also been recorded. First results show that exploring a virtual environment using only the device's movements is more usable and acceptable compared to tactile interaction technique, but the difference seems to become smaller as the used scale factor increases.