Gesture3DFramework: A Generic Gesture-Based Interaction Middleware Applied to 3D Environments

Abstract

The technological advances provide the development and wide adoption of different kinds of humanmachine interfaces, which leads to the creation of new applications such as those based on multimedia and virtual reality (3D). In particular, the proposal of interaction metaphors applied to 3D environments which aim at replicating real world concepts into the virtual environment, facilitates user's interaction. The utilization of gestural interaction metaphors within a 3D environment can turn the user experience more familiar and concrete, making the training curb smaller. However, in order to apply interaction metaphors it is necessary their classification and generalization, so that they can be widely deployed in different applications. This paper introduces the development of a generic and customizable solution for the mediation of user gestural interaction (selection, manipulation and navigation) with heterogeneous rendering engines for virtual reality environments. This solution, called Gesture3DFramework, allows the users context and gesture-metaphors configuration to be easily customized so that it can be adaptable to multiple 3D virtual environments. With Gesture3DFramework, the final user (and developer) will be provided with a higher level of abstraction when it comes to the development of interactive virtual reality applications, since once the configuration directives have been described, the system will adapt itself to the specific interaction routines of the applied rendering engine.