Lapides - 3D Tractus

Lapides, P., Sharlin, E., Sousa, M. C., and Streit, L. 2006. The 3D Tractus: A Three-Dimensional Drawing Board. In Proceedings of the First IEEE international Workshop on Horizontal interactive Human-Computer Systems (January 05 - 07, 2006). TABLETOP. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC, 169-176. DOI= http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TABLETOP.2006.33

Summary

I want to draw in 3D, but all I have is this tablet PC. I know, I'll put the table PC on a table that moves up and down, simulating the third dimension. I'll make a drawing program with a user interface that shows the 3D drawing from a few angles so users won't get too confused. We'll use visual cues like depth with line width. Also, we'll use perspective projection so the user knows which things are 'below' the current plane of the tablet PC.

People used it and said it was neat.

Discussion

This drawing/3D modeling approach is a little more realistic than other things we've read (Holosketch or the superellipsoid clay thing) since all you need is a tablet and one of their funky elevator things. So I'll give it kudos there.

I'm not sure how simple or intuitive it is, however, to have to move your tablet pc up and down to draw in the third dimension. I question the accuracy, especially if you're trying to line things up one on top of another, etc, since you don't really have a good idea of where things are in the Z axis. This is especially hard if what you're trying to draw exists above the current plane of the tablet PC, since their software only shows you what's below the current plane.

Neat idea, but a bit klunky. Hope someone doesn't get their legs cut off if the tractus goes berserk.