Abstract
Cardboard virtual reality (VR) environment using a cardboard viewer and smartphone as a head-mounted display (HMD) opens the door to new possibilities where people can experience VR easily and inexpensively. However, such cardboard VR environment covers the touch screen of the smartphone and thus restricts the user from touching the screen. To address this problem, we present FistPointer, a target selection technique using mid-air interaction behind a smartphone for cardboard VR environment. Our technique displays a pointer on the screen corresponding to the position of the hand detected by the built-in back camera of the smartphone. The user can move the pointer by moving the hand in a thumbs-up posture and select a target by folding the thumb similar to pushing the button of a joystick. Our technique can be implemented using only the built-in camera of a smartphone, thus it is easy to apply our technique to a target selection in cardboard VR environment. To evaluate the performance of our technique, we conducted experiments in selection task. Furthermore, we developed a game using our technique and investigated the user impressions.
