Improvement of collaborative selection in 3D complex environments

Closely coupled interactions in 3D Collaborative Virtual Environments present a new challenge for the design of Computer-Human Interfaces. Among emerging issues, the collaborative selection of artifact presents several constraints since it requires a good understanding of the workspace of the partner and a good coordination between their actions. However, existing Collaborative Virtual Environments inhibit some mechanisms of communication and interpersonal awareness processes, and this limits the efficiency of such collaborative tasks. To go beyond these constraints, we propose in this article a metaphor for the collaborative selection of 3D artifacts. The proposed approach exploits the haptic channel through a gestural guidance strategy. Once the target is selected by one partner, the second partner is attracted through a suitable force model toward the target. An experimental study was carried out in the context of molecular design, investigating different working strategies. The results show that the proposed metaphor significantly improves the efficiency of the group during the deformation of molecular structures. Moreover, the proposed approach provides a suitable learning support for beginners and enables the more experienced user to implicitly convey and explain some features of the molecular structures.