Device-Independent Navigation and Interaction in Virtual Environments
Christian Faisstnauer, Dieter Schmalstieg, Zsolt Szalavári · 1998
. We present a new approach to the integration of input devices into virtual environment software systems. Our approach employs a so-called Mapper module as an intermediate between input device drivers and virtual environment application. Major advantages of our approach are full device-independence, including the easy integration of new input devices and emulation of missing device capabilities, interactive reconfiguration, sharing of input devices among multiple applications, automatic selection of devices and interaction appropriate for the task, and high-level support for a large variety of navigation styles in virtual environments. 1. Introduction Successful human-computer interaction requires efficient transfer of information from humans to computers. Such communication is mediated via input devices, which have become more diverse with the introduction of virtual reality systems that frequently use 6 degree of freedom (DOF) trackers and other devices that cannot really be consi...