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We use a working environment for each client based on a desktop system, which is enhanced by spatial display technology and two-handed interaction carried out using three dimensional input devices. The name Personal Workspace we have chosen for our system describes the three dimensional character of the paradigm, as well as its desktop style user interface in a shared working environment.
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In the operational environment, the interaction devices would be arranged in convenient dextrous space around a standard desktop workstation with a large CRT display, to enable concentratoin on the task to be perfomed.
Shutter glasses with alternating transmissive LCD panels, which are synchronised over an infrared triggering to the CRT, are used for stereo display of information on the display, so spatial information can be placed in a workspace reaching into and out of the screen. The high quality of this three dimensional display technique is very important for it's acceptance; users usually find it rather uncomplicated to use. We intend to utilise Augmented Reality techniques, allowing the user to view both 2D and 3D data. The combination of a display device with shutter glasses suupporting the partial immersion of the user - usually called Fishtank-VR set-up - does not overload users with difficult to wear hardware devices, and keeps the necessary time to get familiar with the interface very low. Furthermore this type of display technology can support more than one observer, so that they can see and investigate 3D information simultaneously on one display
For the three dimensional interaction tasks we have designed a two-handed interface to enhance the interaction perfomance. The interface uses a simple metaphor of a pen and a virtual prop. The pen is used with the dominant hand as a gerneral pointing device for both three dimensional selection and manipulation and two dimensional desktop operations. Pointing with a pen is part of our everyday life, so no additional user skills have to be trained to use this part of the interface. While the dominant hand perfoms fine grained and precise interaction, the non-dominant hand is employed to hold a virtual prop for simple rotations, translations and zooming operations. The prop designed as part of the interface should be an invariant device (e.g. a sphere) so that it could be used for the relevant transformations on every displayed object, without destroying the cognitive correspondence. Both pen and prop are implemented as position and orientation tracked devices, using state-of-the-art magnetic tracking technology. As the workspace is limited to a relatively small space in front of the operator, the inherent precision of the magnetic tracking technology is sufficient. Interference with the CRT-display must be examined for the given hardware.
A miniaturised model of the spacecraft is located next to the user, that reflects also the spacecraft's logical structure, The model can be used to select specific parts of the highest level in the spacecraft system architecture by simply picking it with the pen pointing device. This mechanism allows the user to rapidly access the whole system hierarchy.
The panel in front of the user is a pressure sensitive off-the-shelf sketch pad which is mapped directly to the display screens surface, enabling the use of common 2D graphical user interface (GUI) elements like windows, sliders, buttons etc.. For such desktop elements the user performs selection and pointing operations with his pen on the surface of the panel, which is of very high precision. To keep the possibility of conventional TC/TM operations alive, the Personal Workspace hardware configuration also includes a keyboard as standard desktop interface for the direct input of commands.
The overall proposed hardware set-up also provides fast navigation and interaction techniques supported by the two-handed design, and the concept of integrated two and three dimensional interaction elements. The Personal Workspace therefore provides at a low cost comparable high quality in both visualization of information and interactive manipulation of parametric data spaces.
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