Effective spatially sensitive interaction in virtual environments

162 Pages·2.2 MB·en_US

by  Durost, Richard S.

DUDLEY KNOX LIBRARY
NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHO
MONTEREY CA 93943-*-
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NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
Monterey, California
THESIS
EFFECTIVE SPATIALLY SENSITWE INTERACTION IN
VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS
by
Richard S. Durost
September 2000
Thesis Advisor: Rudolph P. Darken
Associate Advisor: Michael Capps
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

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September2000 Master'sThesis
4.TITLE AND SUBTITLE: Title(Mixcase letters) 5.FUNDING NUMBERS
Effective Spatially SensitiveInteractioninVirtualEnvironments
6. AUTHOR(S)Richard S. Durost, CaptainUSA
PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S)ANDADDRESS(ES) PERFORMING ORGANIZATION
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NavalPostgraduateSchool REPORTNUMBER
Monterey. CA 93943-5000
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13. ABSTRACT (maximum 200words)
Effective interaction techniques are critical for productive use of virtual environments for business,
manufacturing, and training. This thesis addresses the need to match the dimensionality oftasks performed in a
virtual environmentto the dimensionalityofthe techniques usedtoperformthetasks.
Inorderto demonstrate theperformancebenefits ofmatching the dimensionality oftask and technique, an
experiment was conducted in which twenty-seven subjects were asked to perform a series of two and three-
dimensional tasks. Subjects were required to perform all tasks using onlythree-dimensional techniques, then only
two-dimensional techniques, and finally a combinationofboth techniques.
The results clearly showed that matching the dimensionality of the task to the dimensionality of the
interactiontechnique achievedthe bestperformance inavirtual environment. Of27 subjects, 90%preferredtouse
a technique whose dimensionality matched the requirements ofthe task. More importantly, 100% demonstrated
improvedperformance whenthe dimensionality oftaskand techniquematched.
14. SUBJECTTERMS 15.NUMBEROF
Virtual Environments, Interaction, InteractionTechniques PAGES
154
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EFFECTIVE SPATIALLY SENSITIVE INTERACTION IN VIRTUAL
ENVIRONMENTS
Richard S. Durost
Captain, United States Army
B.S., United States Military Academy, 1990
Submitted in partial fulfillment ofthe
requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
from the
NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
September 2000