Evaluation of Depth Perception for Touch Interaction with Stereoscopic Rendered Objects

Valkov Dimitar, Giesler Alexander, Hinrichs Klaus

Abstract

Recent developments in the domain of Human Computer Interaction have suggested to combine stereoscopic visualization with touch interaction. Although this combination has the potential to provide more intuitive and natural interaction setups for a wide range of applications, until now interaction with such systems is mainly constrained to simple navigation, whereas manipulation of the stereoscopically displayed objects is supported only rather rudimentarily. In this paper we investigate the users' ability to discriminate depth or depth motion of stereoscopically rendered objects while she is performing touch gestures and discuss implications for object selection and manipulation. Our results show that there is a usable range of imperceptible manipulation, which - if properly applied - could support interaction with objects floating in the vicinity around the display surface without noticeable impact on a user's visual or touch performance.