Interaction using Speech and a Virtual Stick in a CAVE

In VEs (virtual environments) such as a CAVE system, there are three important operations : executive command decision, object selection and 3-D (three-dimensional) pointing. It is necessary to implement these operations in VEs intuitively and accessibly. In CAVE, it is possible for examines to walk and change their viewpoints freely. Then, the input devices which have excellent portability and rich expression are desired. Speech input satisfies both requirements. It is, however, very difficult for the speech input to indicate an exact point in 3-D space. Therefore, an extendable virtual stick is employed and it supports speech input. This paper proposes a user friendly interface using speech and a virtual stick in CAVE system. In this paper, several applications appropriate for the proposed interface are developed. Some problems are pointed out from the applications.