Figure 1: Illustration of manual RayCursor: a) the user controls a cursor along the ray using relative displacements of their thumb on the controller's touchpad; b) the target closest to the cursor is highlighted. Illustration of semi-auto RayCursor: c) by default, it works like Raycasting. The cursor (in black) is positioned at the intersection with a target; d) the target remains selected if the cursor moves out of the target, until it is closer to another target; e) the user can manually move the cursor using the controller's touchpad, to select another target (the cursor turns red to indicate manual mode); f) if the user does not touch the touchpad for 1s, the cursor returns to its behaviour described in c). ABSTRACTRaycasting is the most common target pointing technique in virtual reality environments. However, performance on small and distant targets is impacted by the accuracy of the pointing device and the user's motor skills. Current pointing facilitation techniques are currently only applied in the context of the virtual hand, i.e. for targets within reach. We propose enhancements to Raycasting: filtering the ray, and adding a controllable cursor on the ray to select the nearest target. We describe a series of studies for the design of the visual feedforward, filtering technique, as well as a comparative study between different 3D pointing techniques.Our results show that highlighting the nearest target is one of the most efficient visual feedforward technique. We also show that filtering the ray reduces error rate in a drastic way. Finally we show the benefits of RayCursor compared to Raycasting and another technique from the literature.

Raycasting is the most common target pointing technique in virtual reality environments. However, performance on small and distant targets is impacted by the accuracy of the pointing device and the user's motor skills. Current pointing facilitation techniques are currently only applied in the context of the virtual hand, i.e. for targets within reach. We propose to add a cursor on the ray, controlled by the user. This allows target pointing techniques by proximity to be applied, such as the Bubble Cursor. We describe a study comparing several visual feedbacks for this technique. Our results show that just highlighting the nearest target reduces the selection time by 14.8% and the error rate by 82.6% compared to Raycasting in the general case. For small targets, the selection time is reduced by 25.7% and the error rate by 90.8%.

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International audience Raycasting is the most common target pointing technique in virtual reality environments. However, performance on small and distant targets is impacted by the accuracy of the pointing device and the user's motor skills. Current pointing facilitation techniques are currently only applied in the context of the virtual hand, i.e. for targets within reach. We propose enhancements to Raycasting : filtering the ray, and adding a controllable cursor on the ray to select the nearest target. We describe a series of studies for the design of the visual feedforward, filtering technique, as well as a comparative study between different 3D pointing techniques. Our results show that highlighting the nearest target is one of the most efficient visual feedforward technique. We also show that filtering the ray reduces error rate in a drastic way. Finally we show the benefits of RayCursor compared to Raycasting and another technique from the literature. Raycasting est la technique de pointage de cible la plus courante dans les environnements de réalité virtuelle. Cependant, sa performance sur des cibles à la fois petites et distantes est affectée par la précision du dispositif de pointage et les capa-cités motrices de l'utilisateur. Les techniques actuelles de facilitation du pointage ne sont actuellement appliquées que dans le contexte de la main virtuelle, c'est-à-dire pour les cibles à portée de main. Nous proposons des améliorations au Raycasting : le fil-trage du rayon, et l'ajout d'un curseur contrôlable sur celui-ci pour sélectionner la cible la plus proche. Nous décrivons une série d'études pour la conception d'aides visuelles, la technique de filtrage, ainsi qu'une étude comparative entre différentes techniques de pointage 3D. Nos résultats montrent que la mise en évidence de la cible la plus proche est l'une des techniques les plus efficaces de rétroaction visuelle. Nous montrons éga-lement que le filtrage du rayon réduit le taux d'erreur de manière drastique. Enfin, nous montrons les avantages de RayCursor par rapport à Raycasting et à une autre technique de la littérature.