Generalized best-first search strategies and the optimality of A*
Journal of the ACM (JACM)
A toolset for navigation in virtual environments
UIST '93 Proceedings of the 6th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
Guided navigation of virtual environments
I3D '95 Proceedings of the 1995 symposium on Interactive 3D graphics
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Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
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Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
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Web3D '03 Proceedings of the eighth international conference on 3D Web technology
Automatic derivation of electronic maps from X3D/VRML worlds
Proceedings of the ninth international conference on 3D Web technology
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Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments - Special issue: 2004 workshop on VR design and evaluation
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ICCSA'05 Proceedings of the 2005 international conference on Computational Science and its Applications - Volume Part I
Towards hands-free interfaces based on real-time robust facial gesture recognition
AMDO'06 Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Articulated Motion and Deformable Objects
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2LIP: filling the gap between the current and the three-dimensional web
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on 3D Web Technology
ADNTIIC'10 Proceedings of the First international conference on Advances in new technologies, interactive interfaces, and communicability
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Although the problem of wayfinding in virtual worlds has been studied in several works, it still remains as one of the main limitations of using 3d worlds in internet. This paper presents a VRML prototype, called Magallanes, that can be added to any new or existent 3D scene to help users in 3D navigation. The designer can define both viewpoints as usual and also virtual tours as connections between viewpoints. The prototype automatically generates a graphical user interface added to the scene that facilitates the selection of places of interest. When the user selects a destination, the prototype automatically finds the optimal navigation path from the avatar position to the destination, by applying the A* algorithm to the graph of viewpoints. Afterwards, the camera is animated following the generated path. One of Magallanes' novelties is that the viewpoints and connections can not only be added by prototype instantiation, but also can be dynamically done while the user navigates. Although Magallanes can be used to help any user to navigate a VRML scene, we find it particularly useful for persons with hands disabilities to whom 3D navigation with a conventional mouse may become almost impossible. Magallanes was tested in combination with a visual-based interface that captures facial gestures and head movement to control the mouse.