Interaction Techniques in Virtual Reality: a Methodology based on Natural Movements

Interaction within virtual environments is one of the most crucial aspects of virtual reality, as the way users interact with the virtual world directly affects their level of enjoyment and presence during the experience. Currently, controller-based interaction for object manipulation is still widely used, with button-based techniques being particularly common. However, there remains significant space for improvement, as these interaction methods do not always meet users' expectations in terms of usability. In the current work, we propose a simplified approach designed to be more intuitive and user-friendly, and we compare it with a button-based interaction technique. This method allows users to interact with the environment mostly through simplified actions, which are abstracted and represented as virtual buttons that users can touch instead of physically pressing the buttons on the physical controllers. Actions become more intuitive, as users only need to touch these virtual buttons instead of worrying about which combination of inputs they need. We designed and developed an experimental environment to evaluate these interaction techniques in close-range tasks, based on both objective and subjective metrics. The results suggest that our method was found more enjoyable, intuitive and easy to use than the button-based technique, while also maintaining a high level of presence.