<title>Development of a stereoscopic three-dimensional drawing application</title>

Abstract

With recent advances in 3D (three-dimensional) technology, computer users have the opportunity to work within a natural 3D environment; a flat panel LCD computer display of this type, the DTI-100M made by Dimension Technologies, Inc. (Rochester, NY), recently went on the market. In a joint venture between DTI and NCSU, an object-oriented 3D drawing application, named 3-D Draw, was developed to address some issues of human interface design for interactive stereo drawing applications.The focus of this paper is to determine some of the procedures a user would naturally expect to follow while working within a true 3D environment. The paper discusses: 1) the interface between the Macintosh II and DTI-100M during implementation of 3-D Draw, including stereo cursor development and presentation of current 2D systems, with an additional 'depth' parameter, in the 3D world, 2) problems in general for human interface into the 3D environment, and 3) necessary functions and/or problems in developing future stereoscopic 3D operating systems/tools.