Ben Yang

Permanent Proxies for Bimanual Selection and Manipulation in VR

Ben Yang, Jen-Shuo Liu, Xichen He, Barbara Tversky, Steven Feiner

IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), 2025. Poster.

VR view over a wooden table. The left controller holds a motherboard proxy outlined in yellow, joined by a yellow arc to the original motherboard on the table. The right controller holds a RAM proxy outlined in red, joined by a red arc to the original RAM module, and a red outline on the motherboard proxy marks where the RAM goes.
Fig. 1. Proxies of a motherboard and a RAM module, pulled into the hands and joined to their originals by arcs, with the RAM’s target pose outlined in red on the motherboard proxy. Manipulating a proxy moves its original, as in the Voodoo Dolls technique.

Abstract

Copies (proxies) of objects are useful for selecting and manipulating objects in virtual reality (VR). Temporary proxies are destroyed after use and must be recreated for reuse. Permanent proxies persist after use for easy reselection, but can cause clutter. To investigate the benefits and drawbacks of permanent and temporary proxies, we conducted a user study in which participants performed 6DoF tasks with proxies in the Voodoo Dolls technique, revealing that permanent proxies were more efficient for hard reselection and preferred.

Video

Still from the video: a motherboard and its proxy on a table, joined by a red curve. Opens on YouTube.
Video 1. The Voodoo Dolls technique, the two study conditions and the results. 1 min; opens on YouTube.

Cite

B. Yang, J.-S. Liu, X. He, B. Tversky, and S. Feiner, “Permanent Proxies for Bimanual Selection and Manipulation in VR,” in Proc. IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), 2025, pp. 1330–1331, doi: 10.1109/VRW66409.2025.00311.

@inproceedings{yang2025permanentproxies,
  title={Permanent Proxies for Bimanual Selection and Manipulation in VR},
  author={Yang, Ben and Liu, Jen-Shuo and He, Xichen and Tversky, Barbara and Feiner, Steven},
  booktitle={2025 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)},
  pages={1330--1331},
  year={2025},
  doi={10.1109/VRW66409.2025.00311}
}