Novel interaction using mobile devices on mesh viewer application

• Main Author: Er, Young Yee
• Other Authors: He Ying
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Computing methodologies::Computer graphics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/70595
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Mesh Viewers are applications which parse graphic files(.m or .obj) , and displays them into a polygonal mesh for viewing and manipulating. Traditional Mesh Viewers use traditional 2D interfaces, such as keyboard/mouse for desktop, as well as touch screens in Tablet PCs and Smartphone platforms. However, these 2D interfaces are inherently limited, as the objects to be manipulated are three-dimensional. This project is an attempt to conceptualise and develop a novel form of interaction for Mesh Viewers, that address the inherent limitation in current interfaces. Possible 3D interfaces have been researched on, and amongst a few candidates, one was chosen to be implemented. The objective is to develop a user interface that is more intuitive than 2D interfaces, in a way that can emulate the form of the mesh that is being viewed. The solution that was selected to be implemented involves the use of 2 Android Devices. One android device will act as the display (Display Device), showing the model. The other Android device will be the controller (Controller Device). The Controller Device’s rotation movements will be mirrored by the object shown in the Display Device. Translation and scaling controls is implemented in a 2D interface however, and still resides in the Controller Device. Programming of the application was done in the Android Studio IDE, with the Android SDK. The mesh viewer uses the OpenGL ES API to render the objects as well as manipulate them. All in all, the project was successful in conceptualising and prototyping a new form of user interaction on Mesh Viewers. However, due to the limitations of the sensors used in the project, not all transformations could be represented by the sensor data, hence this application has ample potential to grow.