3D Interaction Group at Virginia Tech

Research

rapMenu

Traditional menu designs are not well-suited for command selection on distant displays. We describe a new interaction technique called the "roll-and-pinch menu" (rapMenu), and investigate the design space of remote menu selection using freehand gestural input. The rapMenu maps intuitive hand postures and gestures to a radial menu layout at two levels of granularity: the user rolls her hand to alter the wrist orientation, which makes a group of menu items selectable; then she touches her thumb to a particular finger (forming a pinch gesture) to select a specific item in that group. We present the visual design and behavior of the rapMenu, consider related design issues, examine design variations, and discuss the strengths and limitations of our approach.

The rapMenu maps palm orientation to a group of menu items (as if the user's hand were rotating around the outside of the radial menu), and pinch gestures (thumb pinches to one of the other fingers) to corresponding items. It affords an intuitive, fast and reliable way to make menu selection with freehand.

Publications

- Tao Ni, Ryan McMahan, Doug Bowman. (2008). rapMenu: remote menu selection using freehand gestural input. Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (3DUI) 2008. Reno, Nevada, March 2008. p. 55-58.

Video

A short video of the rapMenu in working.

Additional Links

http://people.cs.vt.edu/nitao/portfolio/rapmenu.html