Short paper: 3-Hand Manipulation of Virtual Objects

In this paper we introduce a new 3D interaction technique called “3-Hand Manipulation”, for multi-user collaborative manipulation of 3D objects. The 3-Hand Manipulation relies on the use of three manipulation points that can be used simultaneously by three different “hands” of two or three users. Interestingly, the three translation motions of the manipulation points can fully determine the resulting 6 degrees of freedom motion of the manipulated object. We describe the implementation of the 3-Hand Manipulation, its graphical representations and an illustration of its use by two or three users on an insertion task in immersive virtual environment. This technique could be used in various applications of collaborative VR such as for virtual prototyping, training simulations, assembly and maintenance simulations.