Three Dimensional Object Orientation Using the Non-Dominant Hand

The paper presents the “Turntable”, a 3D input device for orienting objects using the non-dominant hand. The device supports two-handed manipulation by allowing the non-dominant hand to orient an object while leaving the dominant hand free to perform other actions. Two-handed input is a technique that can enhance the performance, simplicity and intuitiveness of CAD systems. These properties are obligatory for CAD systems dedicated to support the conceptual phase of the design process. An experiment has been conducted in which the performance of the Turntable was compared to that of a well known 3D orientation method, known in literature as the “virtual sphere”. The virtual sphere is operated with the mouse using the dominant hand and is documented to be easy to use and efficient. The experiment establishes that a performance gain can be expected from a two-handed user interface that employs the Turntable for 3D object orientation with the non-dominant hand. In a single-handed interface users must switch between rotating and manipulating an object. In a twohanded interface however, task switching is unnecessary and an additional performance benefit can be achieved when there is temporal overlap in the execution of the two tasks. Experimental results show that the Turntable, operated by the non-dominant hand, is easy to learn and its performance and accuracy are nearly equal to that of the virtual sphere operated by the dominant hand. With these results it can now be expected that a two-handed interface utilizing the Turntable performs better than a single-handed one for manipulating objects in 3D.