Understanding People's Mental Models of Mid-Air Interaction for Virtual Assembly and Shape Modeling

Naturalness of the mid-air interaction interface for virtual assembly and shape modeling is important. In order to design an interface perceived as "natural" by most people, common behaviors and mental patterns for mid-air interaction of people have to be recognized, which is an area merely explored yet. This paper serves this purpose of understanding the users' mental interaction models, in order to provide standards and recommendation for devising a natural virtual interaction interface. We tested three kinds of tasks --- manipulating tasks, deforming tasks and tool-based operating tasks on 16 participants. We have found that: 1) different features of mental models were observed for different types of tasks. Interaction techniques should be designed to match these features; 2) virtual hand self-avatar helps estimate size of virtual objects, as well as helps plan and visualize the complex process and procedures of a task, which is especially helpful for tool-based tasks; 3) bimanual interaction is witnessed as a dominant interaction mode preferred by the majority; 4) natural gestures for deforming tasks always reflect forces exerted. These suggestions are useful for designing a midair interaction interface matching users' mental models.