Pop Through Button Devices for VE Navigation and Interaction

We present a novel class of virtual reality input devices that combine pop through buttons with 6 DOF trackers. Compared to similar devices that use conventional buttons, pop through devices double the number of potential discrete interaction modes, since each button has two activation states corresponding to light and firm pressure. This additional state per button provides a foundation to address a range of shortcomings with conventional virtual environment input devices that includes reducing the physical dexterity required to perform interactions, reducing the cognitive complexity of some compound tasks, and enabling the design of less obtrusive devices without sacrificing expressive power. Specifically, we present two novel input devices: the FingerSleeve was designed to be minimally obtrusive physically, whereas the TriggerGun was designed to be physically similar to, yet more functional than a conventional hand-held trigger device. Further, we present a set of novel navigation and interaction techniques that leverage the capabilities of our pop through button devices to improve interaction quality, and provide insight into harnessing the potential of pop through buttons for other tasks. Finally, we discuss how we incorporated one of our devices into a real application.