Augmenting 3D Interactions with Haptic Guide in Large Scale Virtual Environments

3D interaction techniques play a vital role in virtual environments’ (VEs) enrichment and have profound effects on the user’s performance and sense of presence. In this context haptic feedback may be useful to assist the user in complex tasks particularly in the absence of efficient depth cues. In this paper we propose and evaluate two haptic guides (spherical and conical) forobject selection. These guides are meant to improve the Follow-Me 3D interaction technique. Twenty volunteers were instructed to reach for and select four spherical targets in a large scale VE. Three different interaction zones (free manipulation, visual and haptic zones) are defined. Each one is characterized by a specific interaction granularity which defines different assistance levels (visual and haptic).We observed for both types of haptic guides a reduction in task completion time. All participants reported that it was easier to select objects using spherical guide with visual feedback only. However they reported that both haptic guides provided them significant guidance in object selection