TouchSketch

Abstract

To make constrained manipulation of 3D objects in desktop 3D applications, 3D transformation widgets are commonly used. However, their performance degrades on touchscreens because of low accuracy of touch inputs and the fingertip occlusion problem. In this paper, we present TouchSketch, a touch-based interface which allows users to perform independently fine-grained object translation, rotation and scaling on mobile devices. Our manipulation technique permits using the non-dominant hand to specify the manipulation reference while the dominant hand is used to determine the operation mode and control the transformation. In addition to 3D manipulation, TouchSketch provides also a set of functions to edit the shape of 3D objects. Users can use this application to accomplish rapid sketching tasks. We have conducted a user study to evaluate the efficiency of our manipulation technique. The results show that our technique outperforms a Widget-based technique regarding both the efficiency and fluency.

Comparison of mouse and multi-touch for protein structure manipulation in a citizen science game interface

“…Cohe et al developed a 3D transformation widget especially designed for touchscreens [Cohé, Dècle and Hachet, 2011]. Developing and evaluating touch-based interactions for independent fine-grained object translation, rotation and scaling Wu et al [Wu et al, 2015], could show that direct manipulation based interactions outperform widget-based techniques regarding both the efficiency and fluency. However, Fiorella et al [Fiorella, Sanna and Lamberti, 2010] showed that when it comes to fine control of objects differences between direct manipulation and GUI based manipulation interfaces are strongly reduced.…”