Use of Foot for Direct Interactions with Entities of a Virtual Environment Displayed on a Mobile Device

With this paper, we report a novel wearable interface dedicated to provide new types of 3D interactions with mobile devices. Proposed interface is based on the fact that the foot can be exploited in the interaction with a virtual 3D world. By using several force sensors incorporated in the sole and an accelerometer attached to the shoe, gestures performed with the foot are interpreted in order to let the user interact with entities of a 3D virtual environment displayed on a mobile device. Being located inside a shoe this interface is fully compatible to constraints related to mobile devices. Indeed as a wearable and transparent device it can be carried everywhere and therefore can be exploited everywhere.