Investigation of Secondary Views in a Multimodal VR Environment: 3D Lenses, Windows, and Mirrors

We investigate secondary view techniques in a multimodal VR environment for dataset exploration and interpretation. Secondary views, such as 3D lenses or mirrors, can present alternative viewpoints, different filtering options, or different data sets. We focus on 3D views showing surface features that are hidden in a main view. We present different view techniques, including new variations, and experimentally compare them. Experiment subjects marked paths on a geological dataset in a manner that required a secondary view for a portion of each path. We compared passive to interactive (reach-in) views, rotated to mirrored presentations, and box vs. window shapes. We also considered two types of path complexity arising from surface contact geometry impacting force feedback, as the level of lateral guidance provided by the contact geometry may impact relative effectiveness of different view techniques. We show several differences in task times, error rates, and subjective preferences. Best results were obtained with an interactive box shape.