3DM: A Three Dimensional Modeler Using a Head-Mounted Display (Butterworth, et al.) (1992)

This paper is about creating a 3D modeling environment using a head mounted display (with a small screen for each eye) to immerse the user in a 3D world. The user can fly through the 3D geometry and scale himself up or down to get different views of the world.

A floating toolbar is always present in the user's view. It contains functions for creating, editing, and viewing geometry as well as some other basic functions.

The user uses a 6D mouse to more accurately navigate and work with the 3D models.

It is reported that this system is useful for rapid prototyping, especially with organic shapes such as trees and rocks. The 3DM system is not very good at creating geometry with specific constraints (such as those in CAD programs), as it does not support them.

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I like this work, as it seems to be pioneering the virtual reality 3D navigation and modeling that we have seen in later work, such as HoloSketch. This system seems to be aimed at novices who want to rapidly create some 3D model to prove a point or illustrate something. As mentioned in the paper, it does not have any built-in constraints, though a grid that can be snapped to was added due to user feedback on this issue.

I think this work is a good base and can (and has been) expanded on in future work.

No specific user studies were discussed. Instead, the author reports some of the feedback of "users," whoever they may be.

Comments: Paul, Kevin

3 comments of glory:

Kevin said...

I don't know if it became a requirement later on, but the user studies have not been good for most of these papers have they? most do not do a thorough job, quantitatively and qualitatively.

Franck Norman said...

I was a bit surprised when I realized this paper was published before HoloSketch. Maybe it's because they did not mention anything about CRTs.

Sashikanth said...

It's great to see that you liked this paper. I think our expectations for papers is a little high ;)
Another note is that they cite Clark on having explored modeling using an HMD system. However they did not mention how theirs was better in any way.

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