Wow! I Have Tiny Hands: Design And Evaluation Of Adaptive Virtual Hands For Small Object Selection Within Arms Length In Dense Virtual Environment

Object selection is essential to VR applications, but selecting small objects within arms’ reach in dense virtual environments can be challenging. We introduce Tiny Hands, which allows reducing the size of the dominant virtual hand in immersive VR to navigate efficiently and accurately select the desired object. This study compares the tiny hands technique with ray casting and pinch-to-select techniques. Our results indicate that the tiny hands technique is significantly faster and more accurate than the other two techniques. It is also significantly easier to use and learn, perceived as natural, playful, and the most preferred technique. Participants appreciated its ability to resize virtual hands for selecting small objects and ease in navigating a dense VE. They also liked its similarity to mouse and cursor-based interactions and flexibility in adjusting hand size according to various object sizes. Participants perceived tiny hands as potentially fatigued for prolonged use and reported a sense of incorrect depth perception when hand sizes are too small.