FingerButton: Enabling Controller-Free Transitions between Real and Virtual Environments

With the recent Virtual Reality (VR) Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs), users can seamlessly transition between the virtual and real worlds with techniques such as passthrough. These techniques leverage on-device cameras to capture the real world and show users a view of their physical surroundings while wearing the HMDs. However, they often require users to hold a controller or frequently tap on the HMD, limiting the potential for hands-free interaction and thereby hindering a truly immersive and natural VR experience. To address this limitation, we designed FingerButton, a finger-worn push button device that enables seamless transitions between real and virtual environments. We conducted two studies, where the first one explored a set of hand gestures for transitioning between two environments that are commonly used for 'mode switching' within realities. In the second study, we compared FingerButton with the best two-hand gesture identified in the first study and other commercially available solutions (e.g., double tap) for a between-reality selection task. The results show that the physical finger button is faster and user-preferred than other techniques for the transition tasks. Overall, this research contributes to understanding and improving the interaction techniques for fluid switching between the real and virtual worlds, thereby enhancing VR user experiences.