Real-Time Bimanual Interaction Across Virtual Workspaces

Abstract

This work investigates bimanual interaction modalities for interaction between a virtual personal workspace and a virtual shared workspace in virtual reality (VR). In VR social platforms, personal and shared workspaces are commonly used to support virtual presentations, remote collaboration, data sharing, and would demand for reliable, intuitive, low-fatigue freehand gestures for a prolonged use during a virtual meeting. The interaction modalities in this work are asymmetric hand gestures created from bimanual grouping of freehand gestures including pointing, holding, and grabbing, which are known to be elemental and essential ones for interaction in VR. The design and implementation of bimanual gestures follow clear gestural metaphors to create connection and empathy with hand motions the user performs. We conducted a user study to understand advantages and drawbacks amongst three types of bimanual gestures as well as their suitability for cross-workspace interaction in VR, which we hope are valuable to assist the design of future VR social platforms.