Manipulation performance in interactive virtual environments

We studied manipulation performance in virtual environments using two types of controllers: virtual hand control and three-dimensional (3D) mouse/curs or control. These manipulation methods were tested under monoscopic and ste reoscopic viewing conditions. Participants were asked to discriminate, gras p, pitch, roll, and position virtual objects. Speed and accuracy of manipul ation tasks were measured. Virtual hand control proved to be significantly faster and more accurate than 3D mouse cursor control. Participants made mo re head movements in the virtual hand condition than in the mouse-cursor co ndition. Further, it was shown that the speed and accuracy of manipulations are much improved under stereoscopic viewing conditions. actual or potenti al applications of this research include virtual training environments (ass embly, maintenance, etc.) virtual prototyping, teleoperations, and so forth .