Starfish: a selection technique for dense virtual environments

We present Starfish - a new target selection technique for virtual reality (VR) environments. This technique provides a solution to accurately select targets in high-density 3D scenes. The user controls a 3D pointer surrounded by a starfish-shaped closed surface. The extremity of each branch ends exactly on preselected near targets. The shape is an implicit surface built on the segments going from the pointer to each of these targets. As the pointer moves across the scene, the starfish shape is dynamically rebuilt. When it is locked the pointer is allowed to move inside the volume, slide down the desired branch, reach and select the corresponding target. Since the pointer stays within the shape, targets are easy to reach and select.