Optimization of a Tether-Handle Object Retrieval Technique for VR

Many current VR applications use hand-held controllers as the primary means of input, but emerging consumer headsets increasingly support direct hand tracking. Hand tracking supports common and well-understood "grab and release" interaction metaphors. When objects leave the user's reach, however, standard grabbing becomes less useful. Most techniques for manipulating distant objects use separate interaction metaphors from regular grabbing, such as pointing or hand-extension. Introducing such a new metaphor for these exceptional cases can add complexity to an application's gestural interface, so we created an object retrieval technique that leverages existing hand-tracked near-object interactions by attaching a grabbable handle tethered to each distant object. We conducted a user study with 52 subjects to compare variations of our technique, with each variation making some design trade-off or specializing the technique for a specific situation. Among results, variations on our technique that reduced visual clutter were strongly preferred.