Exploring information spaces by using tangible magic lenses in a tabletop environment
Martin Spindler, Raimund Dachselt · 2010
To solve the challenge of exploring large information spaces on interactive surfaces such as tabletops, we developed an optically tracked, lightweight, passive display (magic lens) that provides elegant three-dimensional exploration of rich datasets. This can either be volumetric, layered, zoomable, or temporal information spaces, which are mapped onto the physical volume above a tabletop. By moving the magic lens through the volume, corresponding data is displayed, thus serving as a window into virtuality. Hereby, various interaction techniques are introduced, which especially utilize the lens' height above a tabletop in a novel way, e.g. for zooming or displaying information layers.