Tangible controllers for 3D widgets

We have used a tangible input device to control 3D widgets in a 3D VR environment. This can be a more efficient input method than unrestricted 6-DOF manipulation, since many 3D widgets impose some restrictions on how they can be manipulated. In particular for tasks that are in essence two-dimensional, such as drawing a contour on a surface, tangible controllers have advantages over unrestricted devices. This is especially useful in 3D environments which do not offer 2D input, such as the CAVE. We have combined the tangible controller with a 3D Magic Lens style visualization technique. We have conducted a small user study, in which we compare different input methods for drawing a contour on a three-dimensional curved surface using a 3D contour widget.