Proposal and evaluation of a tablet-based tool for 3D virtual environments

Abstract

The introduction of embedded sensors in smartphones and tablets allowed the use of these devices to interact with virtual environments. These devices also have the possibility of including additional information and performing naturally non-immersive tasks. This work presents a 3D interaction tablet-based tool, which allows the aggregation of all major 3D interaction tasks, such as navigation, selection, manipulation, system control and symbolic input. This tool is for generalpurpose systems, as well as, engineering applications. Generally this kind of application uses specific interaction devices with four or more degrees of freedom and a common keyboard and mouse for tasks that are naturally non-immersive, such as symbolic input (e.g., text or number input). This article proposes a new tablet-based device that can perform all these major tasks in an immersive environment. It also presents a study case of the use of the device and some user tests.