Navigating inexpensively and wirelessly

One of the main focuses in immersive virtual environment research is traveling techniques. A traveling technique depends primarily on the tasks needed to be performed as well as the device(s) used to accomplish a given task. In this paper we examine the potential of a relatively new and inexpensive device introduced in the gaming industry that revolutionized the way 3D games are played. We developed two techniques, both utilizing the wireless Wii remote and its extension from Nintendo, and we examined the usefulness of the remote in traveling techniques in large virtual environments. Our technique allows efficient and comfortable control of multiple degrees of freedom using one hand. We performed a user study to measure the effectiveness of the device and we present our results.