Context sensitive flying interface

Abstract

The requirement to change scale frequently is common to many 2D and 3D applications. Users must `zoom in' to examine details and `zoom out' to appreciate the context. This presents a problem in the context of `fly by' interfaces that use a flying metaphor to enable the user to change the point of view and explore a data space. The problem is that radical changes in velocity sensitivity may needed when working at different scales. A method is described that uses continuous depth sampling to modulate the flying speed. The distribution of depths in the current frame of animation is used to set the Device to Control ratio so that it is always comfortable when operating over a range of scales. This is called Depth Modulated Flying (DMF). A family of related methods are evaluated in a task that requires subjects to search for small targets in a scene. The results show that scaling the velocity control by the near point in the scene and by the average point in the scene are equally effective.