W3D Project Demos

The W3D project aims the development of new principles and tools for the creation and interaction with three-dimensional Websites in order to enhance the user experience.

Motion Parallax & 3D Cursors

We explored new metaphors to improve the depth perception when interacting with 3D content. Our approach focus on the usage of 3D cursors controlled with 2D input devices and a pseudo-motion parallax effect. The additional depth cues provided by the visual feedback of the 3D cursors and the motion parallax are expected to increase the users’ depth perception of the environment. The evaluation of proposed techniques showed that users’ depth perception was significantly increased. Users were able to better judge the depth ordering of virtual environment. Although 3D cursors showed a decrease of selection performance, it is compensated by the increased depth perception.

Pseudo-Haptic Feedback

Pseudo-haptic textures allow to optically-induce relief in textures without a haptic device by adjusting the speed of the mouse pointer according to the depth information encoded in the texture. We presented a novel approach for using curvature information instead of relying on depth information. The curvature of the texture is encoded in a normal map which allows the computation of the curvature and local changes of orientation, according to the mouse position and direction.

Elastic Images

We introduce the Elastic Images, a novel pseudo-haptic feedback technique which enables the perception of the local elasticity of images without the need of any haptic device. The proposed approach focus on whether visual feedback is able to induce a sensation of stiffness when the user interacts with an image using a standard mouse. The user, when clicking on a Elastic Image, is able to deform it locally according to its elastic properties. To reinforce the effect, we also propose the generation of procedural shadows and creases to simulate the compressibility of the image and several mouse cursors replacements to enhance pressure and stiffness perception. A psychophysical experiment was conducted to quantify this novel pseudo-haptic perception and determine its perceptual threshold (or its Just Noticeable Difference). The results showed that users were able to recognize up to eight different stiffness values with our proposed method and confirmed that it provides a perceivable and exploitable sensation of elasticity. The potential applications of the proposed approach range from pressure sensing in product catalogs and games, or its usage in graphical user interfaces for increasing the expressiveness of widgets.

Unity 3D Demonstrator

In this demonstrator you will be able to experience the different technologies developed during the W3D project. In order to enable the desired demonstrator click to the corresponding button. All the demos only require the usage of a standard mouse.

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