RT Journal Article
T1 Still room for improvement in traditional 3D interaction: selecting the fixed axis in the virtual trackball
A1 González-Toledo, Daniel
A1 Cuevas-Rodríguez, María
A1 Molina-Tanco, Luis
A1 Reyes-Lecuona, Arcadio
K1 3D studio
AB Virtual trackball techniques are widely used when 3D interaction is performed through interfaces with a reduced number of degrees of freedom such as mice and touchscreens. For decades, most implementations fix a vertical axis of rotation, which is a suitable choice when the vertical axis should indeed be fixed, according to some mental model of the user. We conducted an experiment involving the use of a mouse and a touch device to study usability in terms of performance, perceived usability and mental workload when selecting different fixed axes in accordance with the user’s mental model. The results we obtained indicate that the consistency between the axis fixed by the technique and the object’s intrinsic axis has a positive effect on usability. We believe that implementations that allow to select different fixed axis for each specific object should be considered when designing future reduced-DoF interaction interfaces.
PB Springer
YR 2022
FD 2022-01-29
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/24133
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/24133
LA eng
NO Gonzalez-Toledo, D., Cuevas-Rodriguez, M., Molina-Tanco, L. et al. Still room for improvement in traditional 3D interaction: selecting the fixed axis in the virtual trackball. Vis Comput (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-021-02394-x
NO This work was supported by the PLUGGY project (https://www.pluggyproject.eu/), within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under grant agreement No 726765. The data and the application used to conduct the experiment are available upon request. Open Access funding provided by Universidad de Málaga/CBUA in the framework of the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 5 mar 2026