A study on three dimensional visualization and manipulation of information

该项目的目标是产生一套新的用户界面技术，可用于三维可视化和信息操作。本文进行了有序层次信息可视化、CRT与透明头显相结合的新型显示系统和AR（增强现实）信息管理系统三个子研究。这些研究的成果嵌入在我们的3-D用户界面工具包中，该工具包被设计为本项目的第四个子研究。以下是这些研究的简要描述。提出了一种新的可视化方法——螺旋树，并对其进行了实证评价。螺旋树是锥形树的一个版本。它可以清楚地指定同一层中有序信息的头和尾。研究发现，螺旋树可以减少从信息空间中搜索特定数据所需的时间。为了扩展三维用户界面的视觉工作空间，提出了一种将CRT显示与透明HMD相结合的方法。建立了原型系统并对其进行了评估。结果表明，如果在CRT和HMD两个视图上正确注册，该方法是有前途的。利用AR技术进行信息管理系统的开发，以探索三维用户界面和三维信息可视化的可能性，并对三维用户界面工具的设计方案进行评估。开发三维用户界面工具包我们在整个项目中开发的三维信息可视化和操作工具和技术的片段被汇编到这个工具包中。该工具包加快了具有3-D用户界面的软件开发。

The goal of the project is to produce a set of new user interface techniques that can be used for three-dimensional visualization and manipulation of information. Three sub-studies, a visualization of ordered hierarchical information, a new display system combining CRT and see-through HMD, and a information management system using AR (augmented reality), are conducted. The fruits of these studies are embedded in our 3-D user interface toolkit, which is designed as our fourth sub-study in this project. The followings are brief descriptions of these studies.1. Visualization of ordered hierarchical informationA new visualization method, Spiral Tree, is proposed and empirically evaluated. Spiral Tree is a version of Cone Trees. It can clearly specify the head and tail of ordered information in a same layer. It is found that the Spiral Tree can reduce the time required to search a specific data from information space.2. Extension of visual workspace combining CRT and see-through HMDIn order to extend visual workspace for 3-D user interface, a method to combine CRT display and see-through HMD is proposed. The prototype system is built and evaluated. The result shows that the methods are promising if two views, one on CRT and the other on HMD, are correctly registered.3. Information management using ARThe system for information management using AR technology is developed, in order to explore possibility of 3-D user interface and 3-D information visualization, The system is also used to evaluate design alternatives of 3-D user interface tools.4. Development of 3-D user interface tool kitFragments of 3-D information visualization and manipulation tools and techniques, which we have developed through-out this project, are compiled into this tool kit. The tool kit speeds up development of software with 3-D user interface.