Mendes D., Sousa M., Ferreira A., Jorge J., (2014) ThumbCam: Returning to single touch interactions to explore 3D virtual environments, In Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces (ITS 2014).
Abstract: Three-dimensional virtual environments are present in many different applications, being used even in small handheld devices. To navigate in these environments using such devices, most of current solutions rely on multi-touch interactions. However, previous works have already stated that multi-touch gestures on smartphones are not always feasible. In this work we present ThumbCam, a novel single-touch technique for camera manipulation on 3D virtual environments. With our solution, the user is able to move and look around and circle points of interest, while interacting using only his thumb. We compare ThumbCam with other state-of-the-art techniques, showing that it can offer more operations with a single touch. A qualitative user evaluation revealed that users found our solution appealing.
Keywords: Touch; Camera Manipulation; 3D Virtual Environments.