Wiimote and Kinect: gestural user interfaces add a natural third dimension to HCI

The recent diffusion of advanced controllers, initially designed for the home game console, has been rapidly followed by the release of proprietary or third part PC drivers and SDKs suitable for implementing new forms of 3D user interfaces based on gestures. Exploiting the devices currently available on the game market, it is now possible to enrich, with low cost motion capture, the user interaction with desktop computers by building new forms of natural interfaces and new action metaphors that add the third dimension as well as a physical extension to interaction with users. This paper presents two systems specifically designed for 3D gestural user interaction on 3D geographical maps. The proposed applications rely on two consumer technologies both capable of motion tracking: the Nintendo Wii and the Mi- crosoft Kinect devices. The work also evaluates, in terms of subjective usability and perceived sense of Presence and Immersion, the effects on users of the two different controllers and of the 3D navigation metaphors adopted. Results are really encouraging and reveal that, users feel deeply immerse in the 3D dynamic experience, the gestural interfaces quickly bring the interaction from novice to expert style and enrich the synthetic nature of the explored environment exploiting user physicality