Skip to main content

Finger Walking in Place (FWIP): A Traveling Technique in Virtual Environments

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNIP,volume 5166))

Abstract

In this paper we present a Finger Walking in Place (FWIP) interaction technique that allows a user to travel in a virtual world as her/his bare fingers slide on a multi-touch sensitive surface. Traveling is basically realized by translating and rotating the user’s viewpoint in the virtual world. The user can translate and rotate a viewpoint by moving her/his fingers in place. Currently, our FWIP technique can be used to navigate in a plane but it can be extended to navigate in the third axis, so that the user can move to any direction in a 3D virtual world. Since our FWIP technique only uses bare fingers and a multi-touch device, finger motions are not precisely detected, especially compared with the use of data gloves or similar sensing devices. However, our experiments show that FWIP can be used as a novel traveling technique even without accurate motion detection. Our experiment tasks include finding and reaching the target(s) with FWIP, and the participants successfully completed the tasks. The experiments illustrate our efforts to make the FWIP technique robust as a scaled-down walking-in-place locomotion technique, so that it can be used as a reliable traveling technique.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   74.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Apple: iPhone (Last accessed, January 2008), http://www.apple.com/iphone/

  2. Apple: iPod–Touch (Last accessed, January 2008), http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/

  3. Bowman, D.A., Kruijff, E., LaViola Jr., J.J., Poupyrev, I.: 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice. Addison-Wesley, Reading (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Darken, R.P., Cockayne, W.R., Carmein, D.: The omni-directional treadmill: A locomotion device for virtual worlds. In: Proceedings of UIST, pp. 213–221 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Iwata, H., Yoshida, Y.: Path Reproduction Tests Using a Torus Treadmill. Presence 8(6), 587–597 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Jazzmutant: Lemur (Last accessed, January 2008), http://www.jazzmutant.com/

  7. Kim, J., Gracanin, D., Signh, H.L., Matkovic, K., Juric, J.: A Tangible User Interface System for CAVE Applications. In: The Proc. of IEEE Virtual Reality, pp. 261–264 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Peterson, B., Wells, M., Furness III, T.A., Hunt, E.: The Effects of the Interface on Navigation in Virtual Environments. In: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 1998 Annual Meeting, pp. 1496–1500 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Slater, M., Usoh, M., Steed, A.: Taking steps: The influence of a walking metaphor on presence in virtual reality. ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction (TOCHI) 2(3), 201–219 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Templeman, J.N., Denbrook, P.S., Sibert, L.E.: Virtual locomotion: walking in place through virtual environments. Presence 8(6), 598–617 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Virginia Tech: VT–CAVE (Last accessed, April 2008), http://www.cave.vt.edu/

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Andreas Butz Brian Fisher Antonio Krüger Patrick Olivier Marc Christie

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Kim, JS., Gračanin, D., Matković, K., Quek, F. (2008). Finger Walking in Place (FWIP): A Traveling Technique in Virtual Environments. In: Butz, A., Fisher, B., Krüger, A., Olivier, P., Christie, M. (eds) Smart Graphics. SG 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5166. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85412-8_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85412-8_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-85410-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-85412-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics