Multi-touch techniques for exploring large-scale 3D astrophysical simulations. Paper presented at the

Enabling efficient exploration of large-scale virtual environ-ments such as those simulating astrophysical environments is highly challenging. Astrophysical virtual worlds span ex-ceptionally large spatial scales occupied mostly by empty space, and this makes it difficult for the user to comprehend the spatial context during exploratory navigation. Public ex-hibits, where novice users have little experience using com-plicated virtual navigation interfaces, pose additional chal-lenges. To address these issues, we propose multi-touch techniques to deliver an effective interface to navigate the unique fea-tures of large-scale 3D environments such as astrophysical simulations. In this work, we carefully study conventional multi-touch methods and adapt them to the practical require-ments of this application. A novel technique called the powers-of-ten ladder is introduced to support efficient movement across huge spatial scales using multi-touch interactions. We also investigate user experiences with various multi-touch finger gestures on our prototype digital planetarium. Author Keywords Multi-touch interaction, large spatial scale, navigation con