Virtual Reality Interfaces for Interacting with Three-Dimensional Graphs

ABSTRACT

Today, virtual reality (VR) systems are widely available through low-cost devices such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Although VR technology has so far been centered on entertainment, there is a growing interest from developers, technology companies, and consumers to evaluate it in a wider variety of contexts. This paper explores the effectiveness of visualizing and interacting with three-dimensional graphs in VR in comparison with the traditional approach. In particular, we present an empirical evaluation study for exploring and interacting with three-dimensional graphs using Oculus Rift and Leap Motion. We designed several interfaces exploiting the natural user interface in a VR environment and compared them with traditional mouse–keyboard and joypad configurations. Our evaluation suggests that, although these upcoming VR technologies are more challenging than more traditional ones, they facilitate user involvement during graph interaction and visualization tasks, given the enjoyable experience elicited when combining gesture-based interfaces and VR.

Notes

¹ Java Programming Language Dependency graph (V. Batagelj), available to download from: http://www.isislab.it/delmal/NUI VR/JPLG.gexf.

² http://www.isislab.it/delmal/NUI VR/Questionnaire.pdf.

³ http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/spss/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ugo Erra

Ugo Erra was born in Italy. He received Laurea cum laude in Computer Science in 2001 and Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2004 at University of Salerno. His main interests are Computer Graphics, Information Visualization and Artificial Intelligence. Currently, he is Assistant Pro- fessor at University of Basilicata, Italy.

Delfina Malandrino

Delfina Malandrino received the PhD in Computer Science at University of Salerno (Italy) in 2004. Currently, she is Assistant Professor at University of Salerno. Her research activities include Privacy, Distributed Systems on the WWW, Collaborative and Learning Systems, In- formation Visualization, Social Network Analysis, Green Computing, Usability Studies.

Luca Pepe

Luca Pepe was born in Nocera Inferiore, Italy and he studied Computer Science at University of Salerno. He received a Bachelor Degree in 2012 and a Master’s degree in 2014, both with full marks. His main interests are Human Computer Interaction, Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality and Software Engineering.