Multitouch Gestures for Constrained Transformation of 3D Objects

• Published in: Computer graphics forum Vol. 31; no. 2pt3; pp. 651 - 660
• Main Authors: Au, Oscar Kin-Chung, Tai, Chiew-Lan, Fu, Hongbo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2012
• Subjects: 3-D graphics; Computer graphics; Computer science; H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User Interfaces; I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Interaction Techniques; Interactive computer systems; Studies
• ISSN: 0167-7055; 1467-8659
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8659.2012.03044.x

3D transformation widgets allow constrained manipulations of 3D objects and are commonly used in many 3D applications for fine‐grained manipulations. Since traditional transformation widgets have been mainly designed for mouse‐based systems, they are not user friendly for multitouch screens. There is little research on how to use the extra input bandwidth of multitouch screens to ease constrained transformation of 3D objects. This paper presents a small set of multitouch gestures which offers a seamless control of manipulation constraints (i.e., axis or plane) and modes (i.e., translation, rotation or scaling). Our technique does not require any complex manipulation widgets but candidate axes, which are for visualization rather than direct manipulation. Such design not only minimizes visual clutter but also tolerates imprecise touch‐based inputs. To further expand our axis‐based interaction vocabulary, we introduce intuitive touch gestures for relative manipulations, including snapping and borrowing axes of another object. A preliminary evaluation shows that our technique is more effective than a direct adaption of standard transformation widgets to the tactile paradigm.