Abstract-Multi-touch displays represent a promising technology for the display and manipulation of data. While the manipulation of 2D data has been widely explored, 3D manipulation with multi-touch displays remains largely unexplored. Based on an analysis of the integration and separation of degrees of freedom, we propose a taxonomy for 3D manipulation techniques with multi-touch displays. Using that taxonomy, we introduce DS3 (Depth-Separated Screen-Space), a new 3D manipulation technique based on the separation of translation and rotation. In a controlled experiment, we compared DS3 with Sticky Tools and Screen-Space. Results show that separating the control of translation and rotation significantly affects performance for 3D manipulation, with DS3 performing faster than the two other techniques.

Figure 1: (i) Illustration of the Z -technique. The first finger (right hand in the example) is used for direct positioning in the camera plane while the second finger (left hand) is used for depth positioning in an indirect way. Backward-forward movements move the object farther or closer to the user. (ii and iii) Illustration of the multi-touch viewport technique. The first finger (left hand) is used for 2D positioning in the camera plane corresponding to the viewport (ii) while the second finger (right hand) is used to move the object along the third coordinate (iii). The gray line is used as visual feedback to represent the displacement allowed for the second finger. ABSTRACTMulti-touch displays represent a promising technology for the display and manipulation of 3D data. To fully exploit their capabilities, appropriate interaction techniques must be designed. In this paper, we explore the design of free 3D positioning techniques for multi-touch displays to exploit the additional degrees of freedom provided by this technology. Our contribution is two-fold: first we present an interaction technique to extend the standard four viewports technique found in commercial CAD applications, and second we introduce a technique designed to allow free 3D positioning with a single view of the scene. The two techniques were evaluated in a preliminary experiment. The first results incline us to conclude that the two techniques are equivalent in term of performance showing that the Z-technique provides a real alternative to the statu quo viewport technique.

Multi-touch displays represent a promising technology for the display and manipulation of data. While the manipulation of 2D data has been widely explored, 3D manipulation with multi-touch displays remains largely uncovered. Based on an analysis of the integration and separation of degrees of freedom, we propose a taxonomy for 3D manipulation techniques with multi-touch displays. Using that taxonomy, we introduce DS3 (Depth-Separated Screen Space), a new 3D manipulation technique based on the separation of translation and rotation. In a controlled experiment, we compare DS3 with Sticky Tools and Screen-Space. Results show that separating the control of translation and rotation significantly affects performance for 3D manipulation, with DS3 being at least 22% faster.