Course Overview

Three-dimensional (3D) interaction is an exciting field of research that promises to allow users to perform tasks freely in three dimensions rather than being limited by the 2D desktop metaphor of conventional graphical interfaces. Applications of immersive and desktop virtual environments (VEs), augmented reality (AR), and ubiquitous computing all require efficient and usable 3D interfaces. However, spatial interaction is not well-understood and presents significant new challenges that are not addressed satisfactorily by traditional 2D human-computer interaction (HCI) research. Some 2D techniques have proved useful when implemented in 3D, but these are not sufficient. This course builds on a course offered at SIGGRAPH 2000 titled 3D User Interface Design: Fundamental Techniques, Theory, and Practice. That course focused on the basic input and output devices and interaction techniques for 3D applications. Here, we will present a more detailed discussion of implementation issues and strategies, including the mathematical basis for various techniques and software tools that can be used for implementation. We will also discuss several strategies for 3D interface design, and methods for integrating diverse interaction techniques into applications. We will also present methods for usability evaluation of 3D interfaces, and finally will include a special section on 3D interaction in specialized interface styles such as augmented reality and ubiquitous computing