Direct-Manipulation Interface for Collaborative 3D Drawing in the Real World

This paper describes the collaborative augmented reality (AR) system with which multiple users can handwrite 3D lines in the air simultaneously and manipulate the lines directly in the real world. In addition, we propose a new technique for embodied communication utilizing the 3D drawing exercise. Up to now, the various 3D user interfaces have been proposed. Although most of them aim to solve the specific problems in the virtual environments, the possibility of the 3D drawing expression has not been explored yet. Accordingly, we paid special attention to the interaction with the real objects in daily life, and considered to manipulate real objects and 3D lines without any distinctions by the same action. The developed AR system consists of a head-mounted display, a drawing tool, 6DOF sensors, and the 3D user interface, which enables to push, grasp and pitch a 3D lines directly by use of the drawing tool. Additionally users can pick up desired color from either a landscape or a virtual line through the direct interaction with this tool. For sharing 3D lines among multiple users at the same place, the distributed-type AR system has been developed that mutually sends and receives drawn data between systems. With the developed system, users can proceed to design jointly in the real space through arranging each 3D drawing by direct manipulation. Moreover, a new application to the entertainment has become possible to play sports like catch, fencing match, or the like