Sketch-Based Navigation in 3D Virtual Environments

Navigation represents the fundamental interaction technique in 3D virtual environments (3D VEs) as it enables the users to explore the 3D world and to interact with its objects. Efficient navigation strategies and techniques are required, which take account of the users and their goals and avoid problems of general navigation methods, such as “getting-lost” situations and confusing view configurations. This paper presents a novel method for specifying and controlling navigation in 3D VEs based on sketching navigation commands. The users sketch their navigation intentions on top of the perspective projection of the 3D scene. The system interprets these sketches regarding their geometry, spatial context, and temporal context. Unlike other sketchy navigation techniques, our approach identifies the hit objects of the underlying 3D scene and takes advantage of their semantics and inherent navigation affordances. The approach has been prototypically implemented for the exploration of a virtual 3D city model with a touch-sensitive display.