THREE-DIMENSIONAL WIDGETS (1992)

At the time of this research, 3D user interfaces were in their infancy. Direct interaction with 3D objects had been limited to gestural picking, manipulation with linear transformations, and simple camera motion. Further, there were no toolkits for building 3D user interfaces. In this research, we introduced systems and techniques that allowed experimentation with 3D Widgets that encapsulated 3D geometry and behavior. These widgets were first-class objects in the same 3D environment used to develop a 3D application. This integration of widgets and application objects provided a higher-bandwidth between interface and application than existed in more traditional UI toolkit-based interfaces. We hoped to allow user-interface designers to build highly interactive 3D environments more easily than with the tools of the day. This research inspired many of the commercial 3D direct-manipulation tools that later emerged in the marketplace.

PUBLICATIONS

Snibbe, S.S., Herndon, K.P., Robbins, D.C., Conner, D.B. and van Dam, A., Using deformations to explore 3D widget design. Computer Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH '92), 26(2), ACM SIGGRAPH, July, 1992, pp. 351-352.

Herndon, K.P., Zeleznik, R.C., Robbins, D.C., Conner, D.B., Snibbe, S.S. and van Dam, A., Interactive shadows. Proceedings of UIST '92, ACM SIGGRAPH, November, 1992, pp. 1-6.

Conner, D.B., Snibbe, S.S., Herndon, K.P., Robbins, D.C., Zeleznik, R.C. and van Dam, A., Three-dimensional widgets. Computer Graphics (Proceedings of the 1992 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics), 25(2), ACM SIGGRAPH, March, 1992, pp. 183-188.

Zeleznik, R.C. et al., An Object-Oriented Framework for the Integration of Interactive Animation Techniques. SIGGRAPH 91 paper presentation videotape. Applications of the UGA system for interactive animation and simulation.