RayCursor
Raycasting with a cursor that the user can move along the ray, plus a semi-automatic mode that snaps to the nearest target.
How it works
A cursor sits on the ray. The user slides it in depth with a touchpad to reach targets at any distance, including behind others; in the semi-automatic variant the cursor is placed on the target closest to the ray and highlighted before confirmation.
Papers
- Marc Baloup, Thomas Pietrzak, Géry Casiez (2019). RayCursor: A 3D Pointing Facilitation Technique Based on Raycasting. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems doi:10.1145/3290605.3300331
- Jan Leusmann (2021). A Literature Review on Distant Object Selection Methods. Master's thesis, University of Stuttgart doi:10.18419/opus-12060
- Difeng Yu, Tilman Dingler, Eduardo Velloso, Jorge Goncalves (2024). Object Selection and Manipulation in VR Headsets: Research Challenges, Solutions, and Success Measurements. ACM Computing Surveys doi:10.1145/3706417
- Adriel Yeo, Benjamin W. J. Kwok, Angelene Joshna, Kan Chen, Jeannie S. A. Lee (2024). Entering the Next Dimension: A Review of 3D User Interfaces for Virtual Reality. Electronics doi:10.3390/electronics13030600
- Rumeysa Turkmen, Zahra Rasoulifar, Anil Ufuk Batmaz (2026). VoiceRay: 3D Object Selection Technique for Occluded and Dense Environments in Virtual Reality. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26) doi:10.1145/3772318.3790399
- Chao-Jung Lai, Mauricio Sousa, Tianyu Zhang, Ludwig Sidenmark, Tovi Grossman (2025). Adaptique: Multi-objective and Context-aware Online Adaptation of Selection Techniques in Virtual Reality. UIST '25 doi:10.1145/3746059.3747790
- Huiyue Wu, Xiaoxuan Sun, Huawei Tu, Xiaolong Zhang (2024). ClockRay: A Wrist-Rotation Based Technique for Occluded-Target Selection in Virtual Reality. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 30(7), 3767-3778 doi:10.1109/TVCG.2023.3239951