Point and go: Exploring 3D virtual environments

This paper presents our solution to solve the challenge presented at the 3DUI 2012 Contest. The challenge consisted of assisted collaborative navigation in a 3D environment. One user (called power user) has a global view of the 3D environment; alternatively, the other user (called explorer) has a first person view of the environment. The power user uses co-located gestures to manipulate and explore the VR Environment in a power wall like display. These gestures allow the power user to rotate, translate, zoom and place cues for the explorer within the environment, effectively aiding him. The explorer navigates the scene by means of a point and go metaphor: he points to where he wants to go using an optically tracked Wiimote controller; a virtual line connecting the Wiimote in his hand and the target surface is rendered in the VR Environment. We have chosen to use point light sources as cues to the explorer. These point lights show the explorer which direction he should follow to complete the scavenger hunt through the VR Environment. We performed an informal user study showed that users enjoyed completing the given task, despite the initial learning curve for the power user role.