The Influence of Head Tracking and Stereo on User Performance with Non-Isomorphic 3D Rotation

Abstract

We present an experimental study that explores how head tracking and stereo viewing affect user performance when rotating 3D virtual objects using isomorphic and non-isomorphic rotation techniques. Our experiment com- pares isomorphic with non-isomorphic rotation utilizing four different display modes (no head tracking/no stereo, head tracking/no stereo, no head tracking/stereo, and head tracking/stereo) and two different angular error thresh- olds for task completion. Our results indicate that rotation error is significantly reduced when subjects perform the task using non-isomorphic 3D rotation with head tracking/stereo than with no head tracking/no stereo. In addition, subjects performed the rotation task with significantly less error with head tracking/stereo and no head tracking/stereo than with no head tracking/no stereo, regardless of rotation technique. The majority of the subjects tested also felt stereo and non-isomorphic amplification was important in the 3D rotation task.