HITUI

The High-throughput User Interfaces project is an application research project in research area 3 of VRVis. The project is based on results from the "Non-intrusive user interface devices" basic research project. The idea is to further develop prototypes and basic technologies from the BR project, and to make new, robust VR installations for museums, exhibitions,... together with our partner companies. Although the VR is more and more used in museums, trade shows and entertainment parks around the world, it still fears a lot of users. If a special set-up is required, most of the people just do not want to test it, or there is not enough time, support, or equipment available. Some people hesitate to use it even with extended technical support. Our intention is to design user interfaces which will overcome these drawbacks, and that will be easy to use, robust, and which require little or no support from an expert user. Already we have developed the texture brush prototype. The texture brush makes it possible to paint real objects using real brush and virtual ink. Since introduction of 3D computer graphics architecture models become less and less used. Still, there are some situations where models still can not be omitted. Real model has some qualities which differ significantly from computer generated images. On the other hand, creation of models can be tedious, and changing of textures is not a matter of few mouse clicks like in the computer aided modelling. The texture brush tries to connect advantages from both approaches. By projecting textures on real models, the textures are enriched, displayed in a context, and not simple on the projection screen. The models are enriched with the textures as well. The user interacts using only a real brush which makes the whole tool very attractive and intuitive to use. The tool has been shown at the Vienna Architecture Centre.