Interactive Fulldome - Gesture tracking-based interaction for an immersive video projection environment

Abstract

This thesis presents a gesture based interaction to enhance the immersive experience provided by a fulldome. The interface implements leap motion technology to use hand-gesture recognition in order to control and explore 3D content displayed in a fulldome. The result of this work are: a functional prototype which includes a list of hand gestures to control the content displayed in the fulldome, and a list of guidelines divided in gestural interfaces, designing for a fulldome, and designing for leap motion controller. The prototype of the interface is non-standard developed with the 3D capabilities of Unreal Engine 4 and visual scripting (blueprints). The prototype was tested using usability tests, UX curves, and SUS questionnaires, with users specialized in presenting while interacting with both the audience and a fulldome, as well as with new users that had no experience in the context whatsoever. The results of the tests revealed that the users didn’t have strong opinions over the gestures and generally liked using the interface to perform the tasks. There were a couple of issues with the usability as the system proved to be quite sensible and sometimes presented bugs. More testing is required to reach a conclusive resolution regarding the interface. Further development of the interface is needed to achieve a functional interface for the fulldome.