Poster: Brush, Lasso, or Magic Wand? Picking the Right Tool for Large-Scale Multiple Object Selection Tasks

Selection of multiple objects is a frequent interaction task in virtual
environments. Accomplishing this task efficiently and intuitively
is difficult, especially in cases where there are a very large number
of objects to be selected. In this work, we seek to investigate two
well-known techniques, a spherical brush and a box-shaped lasso
for multiple object selection (MOS), and compare them to a new
MOS technique, which we have named the magic wand. This new
technique automates a lot the work, which the user would normally
have to do manually. The comparison is made through a user study,
where users are presented with a range of different geometric layouts
of selection targets, to investigate the pros and cons of each of
the MOS techniques. The evaluation shows that the magic wand
is significantly faster to use than the other techniques, however the
quality of the magic wand’s selections is highly dependent on the
geometric scenario. The spherical brush proved to be a good overall
technique, whereas the box lasso proved slow and inaccurate even
in geometric scenarios specifically designed for the lasso.