As computers become more pervasive in society, facilitating natural human---computer interaction (HCI) will have a positive impact on their use. Hence, there has been growing interest in the development of new approaches and technologies for bridging the human---computer barrier. The ultimate aim is to bring HCI to a regime where interactions with computers will be as natural as an interaction between humans, and to this end, incorporating gestures in HCI is an important research area. Gestures have long been considered as an interaction technique that can potentially deliver more natural, creative and intuitive methods for communicating with our computers. This paper provides an analysis of comparative surveys done in this area. The use of hand gestures as a natural interface serves as a motivating force for research in gesture taxonomies, its representations and recognition techniques, software platforms and frameworks which is discussed briefly in this paper. It focuses on the three main phases of hand gesture recognition i.e. detection, tracking and recognition. Different application which employs hand gestures for efficient interaction has been discussed under core and advanced application domains. This paper also provides an analysis of existing literature related to gesture recognition systems for human computer interaction by categorizing it under different key parameters. It further discusses the advances that are needed to further improvise the present hand gesture recognition systems for future perspective that can be widely used for efficient human computer interaction. The main goal of this survey is to provide researchers in the field of gesture based HCI with a summary of progress achieved to date and to help identify areas where further research is needed.

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Vision based hand gesture recognition for human computer interaction: a survey

Understanding Virtual Reality arrives at a time when the technologies behind virtual reality have advanced to the point that it is possible to develop and deploy meaningful, productive virtual reality applications. The aim of this thorough, accessible exploration is to help you take advantage of this moment, equipping you with the understanding needed to identify and prepare for ways VR can be used in your field, whatever your field may be.


By approaching VR as a communications medium, the authors have created a resource that will remain relevant even as the underlying technologies evolve. You get a history of VR, along with a good look at systems currently in use. However, the focus remains squarely on the application of VR and the many issues that arise in the application design and implementation, including hardware requirements, system integration, interaction techniques, and usability. This book also counters both exaggerated claims for VR and the view that would reduce it to entertainment, citing dozens of real-world examples from many different fields and presenting (in a series of appendices) four in-depth application case studies.

* Substantive, illuminating coverage designed for technical and business readers and well-suited to the classroom.
* Examines VR's constituent technologies, drawn from visualization, representation, graphics, human-computer interaction, and other fields, and explains how they are being united in cohesive VR systems.
* Via a companion Web site, provides additional case studies, tutorials, instructional materials, and a link to an open-source VR programming system.

Table of Contents

Foreword 
Preface

Part I - What is Virtual Reality?
Chapter 1: Introduction to Virtual Reality - What it is and Where it Comes From
Chapter 2: VR the Medium

Part II - Virtual Reality Systems 
Chapter 3: Interface to the Virtual World -- Input 
Chapter 4: Interface to the Virtual World -- Output 
Chapter 5: Rendering a Virtual World 
Chapter 6: Interacting with a Virtual World 
Chapter 7: Virtual Reality Experience 
Chapter 8: Experience Design: Applying VR to a Problem
Chapter 9: What Dreams May Come: The Future of VR 

Appendices
A: NICE educational application (EVL) 
B: Crumbs visualization application (NCSA)
C: Aircraft wiring application (Boeing, Inc.) 
D: Placeholder artistic application (Interval Research)

Understanding Virtual Reality: Interface, Application, and Design

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Enhancing Our Lives with Immersive Virtual Reality

Manipulation in immersive virtual environments is difficult partly because users must do without the haptic contact with real objects they rely on in the real world to orient themselves and their manipulanda. To compensate for this lack, we propose exploiting the one real object every user has in a virtual environment, his body. We present a unified framework for virtual-environment interaction based on proprioception, a person's sense of the position and orientation of his body and limbs. We describe three forms of body-relative interaction: • Direct manipulation—ways to use body sense to help control manipulation • Physical mnemonics—ways to store/recall information relative to the body • Gestural actions—ways to use body-relative actions to issue commands Automatic scaling is a way to bring objects instantly within reach so that users can manipulate them using proprioceptive cues. Several novel virtual interaction techniques based upon automatic scaling and our proposed framework of proprioception allow a user to interact with a virtual world intuitively, efficiently, precisely, and lazily. We report the results of both informal user trials and formal user studies of the usability of the body-relative interaction techniques presented. CR

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Moving objects in space: exploiting proprioception in virtual-environment interaction

A portable electronic device displays a plurality of icons (e.g., graphical objects) in a region in a touch-sensitive display; detects a predefined user action, with respect to the touch-sensitive display, for initiating a predefined user interface reconfiguration process; and varies positions of one or more icons in the plurality of icons in response to detecting the predefined user action. The varying includes varying the positions of the one or more icons about respective average positions.

Portable electronic device with interface reconfiguration mode

This paper presents a set of interaction techniques for use in headtracked immersive virtual environments. With these techniques, the user interacts with the 2D projections that 3D objects in the scene make on his image plane. The desktop analog is the use of a mouse to interact with objects in a 3D scene based on their projections on the monitor screen. Participants in an immersive environment can use the techniques we discuss for object selection, object manipulation, and user navigation in virtual environments. CR Categories and Subject Descriptors: 1.3.6 [Computer Graphics]: Methodology and Techniques - InteractionTechniques; 1.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism - VirtualReality. Additional Keywords: virtual worlds, virtual environments, navigation, selection, manipulation.

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Image plane interaction techniques in 3D immersive environments

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) has the potential to be a powerful tool for the visualization of burgeoning scientific data sets and models. We sketch a research agenda for the hardware and software technology underlying IVR for scientific visualization. In contrast to Brooks' (1999) excellent survey which reported on the state of IVR and provided concrete examples of its production use, this article is somewhat speculative. It does not present solutions but rather a progress report, a hope, and a call to action, to help scientists cope with a major crisis that threatens to impede their progress.

Immersive VR for scientific visualization: a progress report

We present two novel techniques for effectively selecting objects in immersive virtual environments using a single 6 DOF magnetic tracker. These techniques advance the state of the art in that they exploit the participant’s visual frame of reference and fully utilize the position and orientation data from the tracker to improve accuracy of the selection task. Preliminary results from pilot usability studies validate our designs. Finally, the two techniques combine to compensate for each other’s weaknesses.

Aperture based selection for immersive virtual environments

We explore a range of techniques that use two hands to control two independent cursors to perform operations in 3D desktop applications. Based on research results in 2D applications, we believe that two-handed input provides the potential for creating more efficient and more fluid interfaces, especially for tasks that are context-sensitive or that have many degrees of freedom. These tasks appear frequently in 3D applications and are commonly broken down into a series of sequential operations, each controlling fewer degrees of freedom – even though this may dramatically change the character of the task. However, two-handed interaction, in theory, makes it possible to perform the same tasks using half the number of sequential steps since two previously sequential operations can be performed simultaneously. In addition, many forms of two-handed interaction may be simpler to use and to understand since they correspond to common interactions in the physicat world. It is significant when tasks that need to be broken down into two sequential single-cursor steps, can be performed as a single fluid operation using two cursors. CR Categories and Subjeet Descriptors: 1.3.6 [Computer Graphics]: Methodology and Techniques Interaction Techniques; 1.3.1 [Computer Graphics]: Hardware Architecture Input Devices. Additional

Two pointer input for 3D interaction

We present a novel approach to controlling a virtual 3D camera with a 2D mouse or stylus input device that is based on gestural interaction. Our approach to 3D camera manipulation, UniCam, requires only a single-button stylus or mouse to directly invoke specific camera operations within a single 3D view. No 2D widgets or keyboard modifiers are necessary. By gesturally invoking all camera functionality, UniCam reduces the modal nature of typical desktop 3D graphics applications, since remaining mouse or stylus buttons can be used for other application functionality. In addition, the particular choice and refinement of UniCam controls efficiently enables a wide range of camera manipulation tasks, including translation in three-dimensions, orbiting about a point, animated focusing on an object surface, animated navigation around an object, zooming in upon a region, and saving and restoring viewpoints. UniCam’s efficiency derives primarily from improved transitions between techniques and to a lesser degree from adaptations of existing techniques. Although we have conducted no formal user evaluations, UniCam is the result of years of iterative development with approximately one hundred users. During this time more conventional modifier key and menu-based implementations were implemented and either refined or rejected. Informally, users appear to require a few hours of training to become proficient with UniCam controls, but then typically choose them almost exclusively even when widget-based controls, such as those provided by an Inventor viewer, are simultaneously available. CR Categories: H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation (e.g., HCI)]: User Interfaces—Graphics user interfaces (GUI); H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation (e.g., HCI)]: User Interfaces—Input devices and strategies; H.5.1 [Information Interfaces and Presentation (e.g., HCI)]: Multimedia Information Systems—Artificial, augmented, and virtual realities; I.3.6 [Computer Graphics]: Methodology and Techniques—Interaction techniques;

Andrew S. Forsberg

Papers

Image plane interaction techniques in 3D immersive environments

Immersive VR for scientific visualization: a progress report

Aperture based selection for immersive virtual environments

Two pointer input for 3D interaction

UniCam—2D gestural camera controls for 3D environments