Intuitive navigation method in 3D information space with portable information terminal using the movement of the terminal and the finger gesture of the user

本研究旨在提出一种利用便携式信息终端在三维信息空间中进行直观导航的方法。手持窗口是用户PIT与其他无处不在的设备之间进行信息交换的直观交互方式的界面。这种方法包括通过用户的手指动作来操纵对象和通过移动坑来选择目标设备。在我们的设计中，包括坑在内的每个设备周围都有一个3D信息空间，可共享的3D信息对象被放置在这个空间中。用户可以通过将凹坑靠近设备来浏览该设备的信息空间。此外，可以使用手指动作在PIT和设备之间交换共享信息空间中的对象。利用一台面阵摄像机、三维运动传感器和超声波测距传感器构建了一套用于评估的原型系统。结果表明，与传统的图形用户界面方法相比，该方法提供了更直观的交互。三维信息空间中的基本操作是移动观察位置、改变观察方向以及选择、移动和旋转对象。我们的研究重点是将这些通用操作映射到移动环境中的用户输入动作。我们评估了操作-动作映射的直观性和效率。因此，最合适的映射是：通过改变终端位置来移动观察位置，通过改变终端方向来改变观察方向，以及通过拾取或抓取手势来操作对象。我们使用不同的控制-显示比、终端移动与视觉反馈变化的比率来测量信息导航的性能。结果发现，控制-显示比的一定值可以使系统的性能更好。

This research aims to propose an intuitive navigation method in 3-D information space using portable information terminal. Handy Window is an interface for the intuitive interaction method to exchange information between user's PIT and the other ubiquitous devices. This method consists of the object manipulation with the user's finger action and the target device selection with the movement of the PIT. In our design, there is a 3D information space surrounding each device including the PIT, and the sharable 3D information objects are placed in that space. The user can browse a certain device's information space by bringing the PIT close to the device. In addition, object in the shared information space can be exchanged between the PIT and the device with using the finger action. A prototype system for evaluation was built with a CCD camera, a 3D motion sensor, and a supersonic distance measuring sensor. The result showed that the proposed method provided more intuitive interaction than the traditional method of GUI.Primitive operations in 3D information space are moving view position, changing view direction, and selecting, moving and rotating an object. Our study focuses on the mapping these general operations to user input actions in mobile environment. We evaluated the intuition and efficiency of the operation-action mappings. As a result, the most appropriate mapping is followings ; moving view position by changing terminal position, changing view direction by changing terminal direction, and operating an object by picking or grasping gesture. We measured the performance of information navigation using a various value of control-display ratio, ratio of the movement of the terminal to the change of the visual feedback. As the results, we found some value of control-display ratio could make the performance better.