Browsing by Author "Wingrave, Chadwick A."
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- Affordances and Feedback in Nuance-Oriented InterfacesWingrave, Chadwick A.; Bowman, Douglas A.; Ramakrishnan, Naren (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2001)Virtual Environments (VEs) and perceptive user interfaces must deal with complex users and their modes of interaction. One way to approach this problem is to recognize users’ nuances (subtle conscious or unconscious actions). In exploring nuance-oriented interfaces, we attempted to let users work as they preferred without being biased by feedback or affordances in the system. The hope was that we would discover the users’ innate models of interaction. The results of two user studies were that users are guided not by any innate model but by affordances and feedback in the interface. So, without this guidance, even the most obvious and useful components of an interface will be ignored.
- Concept-Oriented Design in Chasm: Conversational Domain Language Inspired 3D User Interface Design and DevelopmentWingrave, Chadwick A. (Virginia Tech, 2008-07-11)In my experience, novel ideas for 3D interaction techniques greatly outpace developers' ability to implement them, despite the potential benefit of these ideas. I believe this is due to the inherent implementation complexity of 3D interfaces, without sufficient support from methods and tools. Believing a developer-centric representation could overcome this problem, I investigated developer practices, artifacts and language. This resulted in the theory of Concept-Oriented Design and Chasm, a prototype realization of the theory. The key feature of Concept-Oriented Design is its use of developer-centric representations to create a multi-tiered implementation, ranging from an envisioned behavior expressed in conversational language to low-level code. Evaluation of Chasm by domain experts and its use in multiple case studies by volunteer developers has demonstrated that Concept-Oriented Design in Chasm addresses many of the problems of 3D design and development.
- Design and Evaluation of Menu Systems for Immersive Virtual EnvironmentsBowman, Douglas A.; Wingrave, Chadwick A. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2001)Interfaces for system control tasks in virtual environments (VEs) have not been extensively studied. This paper focuses on various types of menu systems to be used in such environments. We describe the design of the TULIP menu, a menu system using Pinch Gloves™, and compare it to two common alternatives: floating menus and pen and tablet menus. These three menus were compared in an empirical evaluation. The pen and tablet menu was found to be significantly faster, while users had a preference for TULIP. Subjective discomfort levels were also higher with the floating menus and pen and tablet.
- Designing Explicit Numeric Input Interfaces for Immersive Virtual EnvironmentsChen, Jian; Bowman, Douglas A.; Wingrave, Chadwick A.; Lucas, John F. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2004)User interfaces involving explicit control of numeric values in immersive virtual environments have not been well studied. In the context of designing three-dimensional interaction techniques for the creation of multiple objects, called cloning, we have developed and tested a dynamic slider interface (D-Slider) and a virtual numeric keypad (VKey). Our cloning interface requires precise number input because it allows users to place objects at any location in the environment with a precision of 1/10 unit. The design of the interface focuses on feedback, constraints, and expressiveness. Comparative usability studies have shown that the newly designed user interfaces were easy to use, effective, and had a good quality of interaction. We describe a working prototype of our cloning interface, the iterative design process for D-Slider and V-Key, and lessons learned. Our interfaces can be re-used for any virtual environment interaction tasks requiring explicit numeric input.
- A First Step Towards Nuance-Oriented Interfaces for Virtual EnvironmentsWingrave, Chadwick A.; Bowman, Douglas A.; Ramakrishnan, Naren (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2001)Designing usable interfaces for virtual environments (VEs) is not a trivial task. Much of the difficulty stems from the complexity and volume of the input data. Many VEs, in the creation of their interfaces, ignore much of the input data as a result of this. Using machine learning (ML), we introduce the notion of a nuance that can be used to increase the precision and power of a VE interface. An experiment verifying the existence of nuances using a neural network (NN) is discussed and a listing of guidelines to follow is given. We also review reasons why traditional ML techniques are difficult to apply to this problem.
- Interfaces for Cloning in Immersive Virtual EnvironmentsChen, Jian; Bowman, Douglas A.; Lucas, John F.; Wingrave, Chadwick A. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2004)Three-dimensional objects in many application domains, such as architecture and construction, can be extremely complex and can consist of a large number of components. However, many of these complex objects also contain a great deal of repetition. Therefore, cloning techniques, which generate multiple spatially distributed copies of an object to form a repeated pattern, can be used to model these objects more efficiently. Such techniques are important and useful in desktop three-dimensional modeling systems, but we are not aware of any cloning techniques designed for immersive virtual environments (VEs). In this paper, we present an initial effort toward the design and development of such interfaces. We define the design space of the cloning task, and present five novel VE interfaces for cloning, then articulate the design rationale. We have also performed a usability study intended to elicit subjective responses with regard to affordance, feedback, attention, perceived usefulness, ease of use, and ease of learning in these interfaces. The study resulted in four major conclusions. First, slider widgets are better suited for discrete than for continuous numeric input. Second, the attentional requirements of the interface increase with increased degrees-of-freedom associated with widgets. Third, users prefer constrained widget movement, although more degrees-of-freedom allow more efficient parameter setting. Finally, appropriate feedback can reduce the cognitive load. The lessons we learned will influence our continuing design of cloning techniques, and these techniques will ultimately be applied to VE applications for design, construction, and prototyping.
- Personalized Nuance-Oriented Interaction in Virtual EnvironmentsWingrave, Chadwick A.; Bowman, Douglas A.; Ramakrishnan, Naren (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2001)Personalized Nuance-Oriented Interaction in Virtual Environments
- Using Pinch Gloves(TM) for both Natural and Abstract Interaction Techniques in Virtual EnvironmentsBowman, Douglas A.; Wingrave, Chadwick A.; Campbell, J. B.; Ly, Vinh Q. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2001)Usable three-dimensional (3D) interaction techniques are difficult to design, implement, and evaluate. One reason for this is a poor understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the wide range of 3D input devices, and of the mapping between input devices and interaction techniques. We present an analysis of Pinch Gloves™ and their use as input devices for virtual environments (VEs). We have developed a number of novel and usable interaction techniques for VEs using the gloves, including a menu system, a technique for text input, and a two-handed navigation technique. User studies have indicated the usability and utility of these techniques.