The Virtual Venue: User-Computer Interaction in Information-Rich Virtual Environments

We present a virtual reality application that allows users to access embedded information within an immersive virtual environment. Due to the richness and complexity of this environment, interaction between the user and the system requires efficient and easy-to-use techniques. We present tools for user control of the system, travel through the environment, and information retrieval. A usability study and its results are also presented and discussed. The study indicates that the use of symbolic information which is tightly coupled to the virtual environment can be quite successful in enhancing the relevance of both the environment and the information. Results also indicate that the set of well-constrained interaction techniques presented here are usable and efficient for information retrieval