For those of you joining us for the first time, ResearchVR is a weekly podcast dedicated to breaking down years of Virtual Reality Research into a digestible form, and discussing the current economic trends of the industry around the world. In today’s episode:

We tackle the new field of 3D User Interfaces and Interactions. We discuss the current UI trends that are arising, and where we see things going for interactions.

Notes

Traditional UI

• Non-diagetic

  • Getting away from Skeuomorphic design

    • Abstract concepts are well known amongst most users

  • distance from camera

Understanding Depth Cues

• binocular disparity

  • Stereoscopic vision
  • Convergence of eyes

• Accommodation

  • Inner Eye Lens changing form to accommodate variable focusing distance per eye

• Occlusion

  • Object blocking each other.
  • Parallax
  • More important for depth past a couple of meters

VRUI

Canvas UI (hybrid)

• Raycasting

  • Gaze pointers
  • Handheld Laser pointer

• Touch

  • Fingers going through buttons

Diegetic UI

• UI elements placed on corresponding objects

  • Good for sustained focal point

• Arm HUD

User Interface Design:

• Oculus guidelines

  • approximately 2-3 meters away from the viewer

  • DONT MAKE IT TOO WIDE

    • 1/3rd of the user’s viewing area
    • Otherwise use head rotation

  • Be wary of Scrolling large walls of text

    • Can cause motion sickness

  • Ok for wide but not tall text field

  • Dont make it too wide
    • Interacting with buttons changing things out of FOV can lead to confusion

• Flat panel in front of you

• Curved panel
  • Better than flat IMHO
  • Good for convergence

Accommodation Vergence Issue

• DK2 Fixed focal distance of 1.3 meters away
  • Object of Interest (menus) 0.75 and 3.5 meters away.
  • TEST TEST TEST
  • Playing with Depth of Field effects to help focus, depth perception, and attention.

Random thoughts to cover

First Time User Experience vs Mastery

• Finding the balance between the two

Skeuomorphic design vs abstract/minimal

• After certain amount of time, trends will arise. Common icons, buttons, actions. What will they be?

Links and References

Hovercast menu:https://developer.leapmotion.com/gallery/hovercast-vr-interface

Mike Alger’s UI: https://vimeo.com/141330081

Leap Motion: http://blog.leapmotion.com/vr-interface-design-future-hybrid-reality/

Oculus: https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/intro-vr/latest/concepts/bpappui/

Unity: https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/virtual-reality/user-interfaces-vr

VR Creators network: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/3uv3cv/yourinvitationtothevrcreatorsnetwork_on/

Shibata, T., Kim, J., Hoffman, D.M., Banks, M.S. (2011). The zone of comfort: Predicting visual discomfort with stereo displays. Journal of Vision, 11(8), 1-29.