Study on hand–eye cordination area with bare-hand click interaction in virtual reality

Abstract

In virtual reality, users’ input and output interactions are carried out in a three-dimensional space, and bare-hand click interaction is one of the most common interaction methods. Apart from the limitations of the device, the movements of bare-hand click interaction in virtual reality involve head, eye, and hand movements. Consequently, clicking performance varies among locations in the binocular field of view. In this study, we explored the optimal interaction area of hand–eye coordination within the binocular field of view in a 3D virtual environment (VE), and implemented a bare-hand click experiment in a VE combining click performance data, namely, click accuracy and click duration, following a gradient descent method. The experimental results show that click performance is significantly influenced by the area where the target is located. The performance data and subjective preferences for clicks show a high degree of consistency. Combining reaction time and click accuracy, the optimal operating area for bare-hand clicking in virtual reality is from 20◦ to the left to 30◦ to the right horizontally and from 15◦ in the upward direction to 20◦ in the downward direction vertically. The results of this study have implications for guidelines and applications for bare-hand click interaction interface designs in the proximal space of virtual reality.