Why axis inversion? Optimizing interactions between users, interfaces, and visual displays in 3D environments.

From video games to laparoscopic surgeries, individual differences in users’ abilities to effectively adapt to new control schemes when interacting with 2D displays as proxies for 3D environments can have significant, even deadly impacts on performance. Starting with the question of why some video game players invert the y-axis on their console controllers, this work aims to provide a foundation for future investigations of how inconsistent control schemes (e.g., an inverted camera view) can significantly impact performance. We argue that fragmented research across human factors, ergonomics, cognitive science, and related fields hinders a unified understanding of how the spatial relationships between users, interfaces, and visual displays affect performance. Therefore, we begin with a multidisciplinary literature synthesis, clarify existing findings, and identify methodological inconsistencies that contribute to conflicting results. We then explore the relationship between y-axis inversion preference and key behavioral and cognitive factors in a group of experienced 3rd person gamers. Based on the results of this preliminary study contextualized within the reviewed literature, we propose a “general purpose” framework to systematically investigate how control inversion and visual input influence perception and performance across various movement goals. We demonstrate how our framework can be used to assess performance using specific examples from a common and challenging laparoscopic procedure, but our modular framework can be used to assess sensorimotor compatibility effects across a wide variety of single- and multi-user real-world situations.