Fader Axis

D. Hemmi
Monash University,
Australia

Keywords: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Visualisation

Summary:

Interacting with 3D immersive visualisations, such as Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) is challenging. May approaches to navigate visualisation utilise hand and arm movements. Whilst this works well for playful applications such as VR gaming technology, it is often not sufficient for analysing scientific data. There are two main problems; first using arm movements is tiring and cannot be used over extended period of time and secondly, arm movements are not precise and often ambiguous. The Fader Axes is a physical controller that allows for precise interaction with 3D visualisations. The technology aims to make the virtual world tangible by providing haptic feedback and introducing physical axes to navigate in space. This patent protected technology places 3 axes, namely X, Y and Z in space and projects the 3D data in between. Physical faders mounted on top of the axes allow to select a specific section of interest in the 3D data space. Additional knobs are used to change visualisation parameters, such as contrast, brightness and so forth. The technology is currently used for exploring medial MRI data, however Monash University is seeking a licensing partner to take this technology to market.