Ergonomic evaluation of interaction techniques and 3D menus for the practical design of 3D stereoscopic displays

• We investigate into the user interaction with 3D stereoscopic display.
• Three interaction techniques and nine 3D menus were assessed.
• Ray-casting technique and circular-stack menu had the best performance.
• Compatibility between the interaction techniques and 3D menus appears to be important.

There has been a recent commercialization of 3D stereoscopic displays in order to implement them in a virtual reality environment. However, there is a lack of extensive research into user interfaces for 3D applications on stereoscopic display. This study focused on three representative interaction techniques (ray-casting, keypad and hand-motion techniques) utilizing a head-mounted display and 3D CAVE. In addition, the compatibility with 3D menus was also investigated based on performance and subjective assessment. Nine 3D menus were designed for the experiment in regards to three 2D metaphors (pop-up, pull-down and stack menus) and three structural layouts (list, cubic and circular menus). The most suitable technique for the 3D user interface on a stereoscopic display was the ray-casting technique and the stack menu which provided the user with good performance and subjective response. In addition, it was found that the cubic menu was not as effective as other menus when used with the three interaction techniques.Relevance to industryThis research describes a distinctive evaluation method and recommendations that guarantee the suitability for interactive 3D environments. Therefore, the results will encourage practitioners and researchers that are new to the area of 3D interface design.