Visualization and Interactions

Permanent staff

• 2 Professors: Dominique Bechmann and Jean-Michel Dischler
• 3 Assistant professors: Antonio Capobianco, Caroline Essert, Jérôme Grosjean
• 1 Research engineers: Olivier Génevaux

Others participants

• 1 Associate researcher : Murielle TORREGROSSA (MC IUT RS, -12/2012)
• 7 Post-doctoral: Vincent BAUDET (CNRS, 11/2006-10/2007), Arnaud FABRE (ATER, 12/2006-08/2007), Guillaume GILET (ANR ATROCO, 10/2009-08/2010), Amel GUETAT (ATER, 09/2007-08/2009), Jérôme SIMONIN (ANR DNA, 07/2009-06/2010), Ludovic STERNBERGER (ATER, 12/2006-08/2007), Manuel VEIT (ATER, 10/2010-08/2011)
• 2 PhD students : Alexandre ANCEL (Ministère, 10/2008-), Jonathan WONNER (Normalien, 10/2010-)
• 4 Former PhD students : Lucas AMMANN (Ministère, 10/2006-09/2010), Guillaume GILET (Contrat IRCAD, 01/2006-09/2009), Stéphane MARCHESIN (Ministère, 10/2003-07//2007), Manuel VEIT (Ministère, 10/2007-09/2010),

Interaction

Relying on the analysis and evaluation of theoretical models of 3D interaction, we realised an experimental analysis based on the notion of degrees of freedom 4-VCB09. To that purpose, we developed a new metric for measuring the degree of integration of the various DOF involved in a task. We have shown that it was efficient to integrate the manipulation of the DOF in a sinlge command when the level of precision required is low. However our results show that it is better to separate the control of the dimensions of manipulation for a task that requires a higher level of precision 4-VCB11.

Based on these results, we propose several new interaction techniques that allow an increased precision in order to realise modeling tasks in an immersive environment including: DIOD (Dynamic Decomposition and integration of degrees of freedom) 4-VCB10, CROS (Cursor On Surface) 8-Vei10. These techniques have been implemented in our modeling plateform for immersive environments: VRModelis.

We also proposed several studies on haptic feedback. The first one was about a haptic 3D menu, dedicated to applications using this type of force feedback peripherals. The 2 main goals were to allow the user to control the application with the same peripheral without going forth and back to the mouse, and to take advantage of the force feedback to assist the gesture while controling the application with 3D controls 4-CE10, 4-EC10, 4-EC09.

The second one was dealing with using haptic feedback to purposes that differed from the usual use : 99% of applications use haptic feedback for realistic simulations or assistance. We wished to take advantage of force feedback to materialize properties in the 3D space, either because they are not easy to display on a screen, or because we want to reduce the visual overload as too much information is often displayed on the screen simultaneously. Therefore, we are currently studying how to render some numerical values using force feedback, by considering various kinds of possible haptic responses (vibrations, viscosity, elastic or magnetic feedback,...) and studying their perception thresholds.

Perspectives

Concerning 3D interaction, we would like to use our models of integration of the DoFs in order to analyse interaction strategies when using tactile interfaces for 3D interaction, considering the manipulation space is then limited to 2 DoFs. Our objective is to propose efficient techniques to allow the manipulation of all the DoFs of the task in the most intuitive and efficient way. Indded, some techniques that we propose (CROS for example) would be well suited for this type of devices. We already performed an initial study that demonstrated the relevance of this approach and we would like to further investigate this topic in order to propose scientific evidences to the VR and Interaction community.

In the framework of haptic peripherals, we consider pursuing our efforts on 3D haptic menus and materialization of properties. On the 1st topic, we wish to enhance our menu, and compare it with classical 3D menus such as pie menus for instance. On the 2nd topic, we are going to experiment our approches for the materialization of properties on an application of automatic surgical planning, in order to represent the space of possible solutions with other means than visual, as many other information is already displayed on the 3D view (numerous anatomical structures, possibly displayed with different degrees of transparency and superimposed).