Interface design for the exhibition
Posted by: HananCohen
In developing the user interface between the visitor and the VR (Virtual Reality) program we had to take some aspects into consideration.
The VR program (client) was originally developed to be used on a PC/Mac using the usual input devices – keyboard and mouse.
- Moving the mouse forward and backward tilts the head of the avatar up and down.
- Moving the mouse left and right tilts the body (and the head moving with the body, as if it is "welded" to it) left and right.
- Pressing the Up and Down keys on the keyboard makes the avatar walk forward or backwards.
- Pressing the Right or Left keys on the keyboard makes the avatar slide left or right.
- Clicking the left mouse button activate objects that the mouse cursor points to.
- Pressing the space button on the keyboard makes the avatar jump.
Since we want to give the visitors a richer experience, we had to find ways to emulate the functions of the mouse and keyboard in different electronic devices and decide on what inputs are more important or less important for our specific VR environment.
We have decided to give priority to the mouse, up and down keys, mouse button and the space key.
In the following design you can see a trackball to the right of the visitor that emulates the mouse.
To the left of the visitors is a "barrel" that emulates the up and down keyboard buttons. Rolling the barrel forward or backward makes the avatar move accordingly.
The other two buttons emulate the mouse button for activating and the keyboard button for jumping.
The VR program (client) was originally developed to be used on a PC/Mac using the usual input devices – keyboard and mouse.
- Moving the mouse forward and backward tilts the head of the avatar up and down.
- Moving the mouse left and right tilts the body (and the head moving with the body, as if it is "welded" to it) left and right.
- Pressing the Up and Down keys on the keyboard makes the avatar walk forward or backwards.
- Pressing the Right or Left keys on the keyboard makes the avatar slide left or right.
- Clicking the left mouse button activate objects that the mouse cursor points to.
- Pressing the space button on the keyboard makes the avatar jump.
Since we want to give the visitors a richer experience, we had to find ways to emulate the functions of the mouse and keyboard in different electronic devices and decide on what inputs are more important or less important for our specific VR environment.
We have decided to give priority to the mouse, up and down keys, mouse button and the space key.
In the following design you can see a trackball to the right of the visitor that emulates the mouse.
To the left of the visitors is a "barrel" that emulates the up and down keyboard buttons. Rolling the barrel forward or backward makes the avatar move accordingly.
The other two buttons emulate the mouse button for activating and the keyboard button for jumping.