Bi-Manual 3D Painting: An Interaction Paradigm for Augmented Reality Live Performance

State Of The Art

The goal of our system is to allow the user to draw directly in a 3D space. We do not seek, however, to provide with some kind of modeling tool (like 3dsMax). Rather, we seek to give the user the ability to sketch in space. Several techniques already exist to draw directly in a 3D immersive environment. Deisinger et al. led a CAVE experimentation (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) on several modeling systems calling three different techniques (Deisinger, Blach, Wesche, Breining & Simon, 2000). The first one is matter creation by “substance” injection on a given point. In this approach, the artist adds volume to matter, and his movement creates the shape. In the same manner, the BLUISculpt system (Keefe, Feliz, Moscovich, Laidlaw & LaViola, 2001) divides space into voxels, which the artist can paint. The second approach is surface generation. In the system being tested in (Deisinger, Blach, Wesche, Breining & Simon, 2000) the artist defines a flat polygon by points in space, and successively attaches created polygons to his sketch. Finally, the third technique, used by the third system in (Deisinger, Blach, Wesche, Breining & Simon, 2000) uses automatic surfaces generation from directives curves being drawn by the artist. This principle has been taken back from the FreeDrawer (Wesche & Seidel, 2001) system where the user traces B-splines in 3D space; lines defining a closed loop can be fulfilled with surfaces. Deisinger et al. noticed several recommendations for designing an immersive sketching tool from their experimentations. An ideal sketching tool should:

• 1.

  Be a conceptual phase tool towards a certain elaboration degree,

• 2.

  Hide its mathematical complexity,

• 3.

  Provides a real time and direct interaction,

• 4.

  Allow large scale and volume modeling, and

• 5.

  Be intuitive.