3D Selection Vault

Freehand Multi-object Selection (Crossing / Cone-casting)

Also known as Crossing Selection (CR), Cone-casting Selection (CC), Multi-Finger mode switching

A hand ray selects single objects with a normal pinch, and a slightly different pinch switches to group selection, where the user either sweeps the ray across objects (crossing) or captures all objects inside a resizable cone.

How it works

Default selection is a hand ray confirmed by a thumb-index pinch. Group selection is triggered by a mode-switching gesture: tapping the thumb on the index PIP joint (Finger Segment), a thumb-middle pinch (Multi-Finger), or rotating the wrist over 90° while pinching (Wrist Orientation). In Crossing Selection the user holds the gesture and every object the ray (resizable into a cylinder) touches is toggled until release; in Cone-casting Selection one gesture toggles every object inside a cone whose size is set by dragging the other index finger along a slider on the hand. Re-selecting a selected object deselects it. In a study (N=18, Meta Quest Pro) on clustered targets 2.5 m away, crossing was faster and needed fewer actions than cone-casting; mode gestures performed alike, Multi-Finger was preferred and Wrist Orientation disliked.

Papers