We present 3DTouch, a novel 3D wearable input device worn on the fingertip for 3D manipulation tasks. 3DTouch is designed to fill the missing gap of a 3D input device that is self-contained, mobile, and universally working across various 3D platforms. This paper presents a low-cost solution to designing and implementing such a device. Our approach relies on relative positioning technique using an optical laser sensor and a 9-DOF inertial measurement unit. 3DTouch is self-contained, and designed to universally work on various 3D platforms. The device employs touch input for the benefits of passive haptic feedback, and movement stability. On the other hand, with touch interaction, 3DTouch is conceptually less fatiguing to use over many hours than 3D spatial input devices. We propose a set of 3D interaction techniques including selection, translation, and rotation using 3DTouch. An evaluation also demonstrates the device's tracking accuracy of 1.10 mm and 2.33 degrees for subtle touch interaction in 3D space. Modular solutions like 3DTouch opens up a whole new design space for interaction techniques to further develop on.
Inertial tracking systems, on the other hand, can be self-contained and require no external reference. They use technologies such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, and compasses to sense their change in orientation @cite_2 . While devices equipped with such sensors (e.g., Wiimote, air mice, and smartphones) are capable of serving as a 3D pointing device, they have only been used to translate objects on a fixed 2D plane (e.g., the TV screen). 3DTouch, with 5 degrees of freedom, does not only serve as a 3D pointing device, but also enables users to rotate and translate objects in 3D space.
@cite_2
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Augmented Reality applications require the tracking of moving objects in real-time. Tracking is defined as the measurement of object position and orientation in a scene coordinate system. We present a new combination of silicon micromachined accelerometers and gyroscopes which have been assembled into a six degree of freedom (6 DoF) inertial tracking system. This inertial tracker is used in combination with a vision-based tracking system which will enable us to build affordable, light-weight, fully mobile tracking systems for Augmented Reality applications in the future.