Multimodal menu presentation and selection in immersive virtual environments

Usability has become one of the key ingredients in making virtual reality (VR) systems work, and a big part of a usable VR system is the design of effective interface/interaction schemes. We investigate the usability of various menu presentation and multi-modal selection schemes in immersive virtual environments. We have identified five major menu displays and 13 possible menu selection methods; among them, we have completed the usability testing for two interaction methods across the five display methods: (1) position control by tracking and command-giving by button-pressing, and (2) both position control and command-giving by gesture recognition. Other interaction methods, including by voice, remain to be investigated.