3D Interaction Techniques for 6 DOF Markerless Hand-Tracking

Abstract

Recently, stable markerless 6 DOF video based hand-tracking devices became available. These devices track the position and orientation of the user’s hand in different postures with at least 25 frames per second. Such hand-tracking allows for using the human hand as a natural input device. However, the absence of physical buttons for performing click actions and state changes poses severe challenges in designing an efficient and easy to use 3D interface on top of such a device. In particular, solutions have to be found for clicking menu items, selecting objects and coupling and decoupling the object’s movements to the user’s hand (i.e. grabbing and releasing). In this paper, we introduce a novel technique for grabbing and releasing objects, an efficient clicking operation for selection purposes and last but not least a novel visual feedback in order to support the ease of using this device. All techniques are integrated in a novel 3D interface for virtual manipulations. Several user experiments were performed, which show the superior applicability of this new 3D interface.