This project aims to develop a 3D user interface software toolkit which would allow programmers to quickly develop immersive 3D user interfaces for Virtual Reality applications. The toolkit will provide all necessery 3D widgets, interaction techniques and tools for programmers to design and implement 3D user interfaces for variouse application domains.
The toolkit will be an object-oriented library of classes which implement the interface functionality, 3D widgets and techniques. A developer can use the provided widgets and techniques or construct custom interface elements by inheriting attributes from existing objects. For the user, the applications built upon the toolkit will have a consistent generic 3D user interface, based on a single paradigm and evaluated by intensive theoretical and experimental studies.
The project has been conducted in close collaboration with with the Information Systems Laboratory (ISL) of Hiroshima University, Japan, and with other projects in the HIT Lab including Medical Interfaces, Multimodal Interfaces and GreenSpace.
Currently, the first prototype of the toolkit is under development. The focus of this development is to design and evaluate software architectures which allow seamless integration of the 3D interaction techniques and widgets with VR world building functionality. The issues being addressed are:
The toolkit is being developed in close cooperation with the Medical Interfaces, Multimodal Interfaces and Immersive Interaction Techniques and Metaphors projects. These projects serve as a test-bed for the toolkit development.