4-D spatial perception established through hypercube recognition tasks using interactive visualization system with 3-D screen

Abstract

We have developed an interactive 4-D visualization system that employed the principal vanishing points operation as a method to control the movement of the eye-point and the change in the viewing direction in 4-D space. Different from conventional 4-D visualization and interaction techniques, the system can provide intuitive observation of 4-D space and objects by projecting them onto 3D space in real time from various positions and directions in 4-D space. Our next challenge is to examine whether humans are able to develop a spatial perception of 4-D space and objects through 4-D experiences provided by the system. In this paper, as the first step toward our aim, we assessed whether participants were able to get intuitive spatial understanding of 4-D objects. In the evaluation experiment, firstly, the participants learned a structure of a hypercube. Then, we evaluated their spatial perception developed in the learning period by tasks of controlling the 4-D eye-point and reconstructing the hypercube from a set of its 3-D projection drawings. The results indicated evidence for that humans were able to get 4-D spatial perception by operating the system.