Ownershift

Abstract

Figure 1. In Ownershift, interaction begins with a 1:1 mapping (A), which allows swiftly reaching towards different virtual targets. If interaction is prolonged, the virtual hand space (VHS) is shifted gradually (B), guiding the user's real hand into a more comfortable position. Overhead interaction can then continue with reduced strain while retaining similar degrees of task performance and body ownership of the virtual hand (C). ABSTRACTWe present Ownershift, an interaction technique for easing overhead manipulation in virtual reality, while preserving the illusion that the virtual hand is the user's own hand. In contrast to previous approaches, this technique does not alter the mapping of the virtual hand position for initial reaching movements towards the target. Instead, the virtual hand space is only shifted gradually if interaction with the overhead target requires an extended amount of time. While users perceive their virtual hand as operating overhead, their physical hand moves gradually to a less strained position at waist level. We evaluated the technique in a user study and show that Ownershift significantly reduces the physical strain of overhead interactions, while only slightly reducing task performance and the sense of body ownership of the virtual hand.

FingerMapper: Mapping Finger Motions onto Virtual Arms to Enable Safe Virtual Reality Interaction in Confined Spaces

“…Recent research investigates how to reduce the physical path length and fatigue of limbs within the maximum arm's reach while preserving VBO. Examples include redirecting visual targets [34], gradually directing the user's hand to a comfortable posture [10], or creating an offset between the physical and virtual hand [23,44]. However, these techniques still require sufficient physical space for whole-body motions and may be unavailable in the confined space.…”

FingerMapper: Enabling Arm Interaction in Confined Spaces for Virtual Reality through Finger Mappings

“…Besides the extension of the arm, another line of previous works improves the ergonomics of VR interaction by exploiting visual dominance over proprioceptive cues [1]. By controlling the visual content, these techniques can redirect the user's arm motions [3,11] to reduce the physical path length and fatigue while preserving the VR experience (e.g., VBO). Other approaches create an ofset for 3D selection in VR [8,15] to the range of the user's maximum arm reach, where users can reach at a further distance with less movement but does not break the VR experience.…”

“…Prior work has started to explore these scenarios, focusing on reducing motion, fatigue, and overall improving ergonomics of VR interaction. For instance, redirecting the user's arm to a comfortable resting position during overhead interaction [3], reducing the physical path length and fatigue by manipulating the visual location of targets in VR [11], and creating an ofset to the user's virtual hand [15]. One of the big challenges for all these approaches is trying to not negatively impact the overall user experience or reduce the level of functionality the interaction provides.…”

"In VR, everything is possible!": Sketching and Simulating Spatially-Aware Interactive Spaces in Virtual Reality

“…Firstly, the lack of haptic feedback makes it harder for users to know when a virtual object is touched or grabbed. While in our prototype this was partially compensated by visual feedback, future technological solutions could further improve on this by including wearable actuators, ranging from simple vibration motors [24,87] to exoskeletons [30,37], physical proxies [5,13], or mid-air haptic feedback [39]. Secondly, with this technology, interaction is only possible while the user's hand is within the limited range of the hand tracking sensor attached to the HMD.…”