IMPReSS: Improved Multi-Touch Progressive Refinement Selection Strategy

We developed a progressive refinement technique for VR object selection using a smartphone as a controller. Our technique, IMPReSS, combines conventional progressive refinement selection with the marking menu-based CountMarks. CountMarks uses multi-finger touch gestures to “short-circuit” multi-item marking menus, allowing users to indicate a specific item in a sub-menu by pressing a specific number of fingers on the screen while swiping in the direction of the desired menu. IMPReSS uses this idea to reduce the number of refinements necessary during progressive refinement selection. We compared our technique with SQUAD and a multi-touch technique in terms of search time, selection time, and accuracy. The results showed that IMPReSS was both the fastest and most accurate of the techniques, likely due to a combination of tactile feedback from the smartphone screen and the advantage of fewer refinement steps.