Immersive gesture interfaces for 3D map navigation in HMD-based virtual environments
Yeasom Lee, Wonjae Choi, Bong-Soo Sohn · 2018
3D maps such as Google Earth and Apple 3D Map that allow users to easily access 3D models of real world become ubiquitously available recently. Currently, most people use the 3D maps on conventional display devices such as monitors and interface devices such as mouse and keyboard. With recent development of mass-market head mounted displays (HMD) where users can experience virtual reality (VR) with more affordable cost, experiencing 3D maps with virtual reality is expected to be an important application. Although one of the main goals of virtual reality technology is to enhance the sense of immersion, the conventional mouse and keyboard interfaces limit the level of immersion, which makes the interfaces often inappropriate for the 3D map navigation. From this motivation, this paper proposes immersive gesture interfaces for 3D map navigation in HMD-based virtual environments. The gestures are recognized using Kinect in real-time. User studies show that the proposed interface improves the level of immersion.