Input & Interaction Methods 🤹🏻‍♂️ – StellarX Help Center

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Understanding Input and Interaction Methods

Use input to interact with space and assets.

Given the multimodal nature of Spatial Computing, there are a number of ways to interact with your Spaces and assets. In fact, you can even combine many of these input and interaction methods to make your end-to-end Experience intuitive.

Input and interaction methods

Interaction Feedback

Interaction feedback is used to help guide your StellarX Experience in a natural way.

Imagine you're exploring a StellarX Space... 💭

You've reached the summit of a rocky, snow-covered peak. Below you, the jagged cliff ledges crumble into a sloped coniferous hillside brimming with discrete creatures.

In the distance, overlooking the mountainous landscape, you admire the tall, thick pine curtain dashed along the golden horizon.

As you scan your Space, you notice a large gap in the tree line.

YIKES! 😬 Looks like you've forgotten to place trees here.

Bothered by the gaping hole you've just spotted in your Space, you feel compelled to fix it. ASAP.

You've got two options...You could teleport yourself all the way across your vast Space. However, that would require multiple Actions and might prove to be quite a laborious feat. On the other hand, you could simply Scale your Space to get a better view, which would not only limit locomotion, but also facilitate asset Manipulation.

You know the second option is best, but you're not quite sure how to do it...

Enter: interaction feedback to save the day!

Essentially, interaction feedback provides you with contextual acknowledgments to offer guidance and support, confirm and validate your choices, as well as raise awareness to specific items as you explore StellarX. These helpful Hints come in various forms and are designed to make your Experience more enjoyable and accessible.

Visual Feedback

Visual feedback comes in many forms which include photographs, signage, gifs, emojis, images, icons, videos, animations, symbols, and more. Often, ideas, concepts, and metaphors are represented visually through the use of color and symbolism, and in some contexts involve text. For example, the color red is generally used to raise awareness to something specific or indicate an error meanwhile the checkmark is generally used as a confirmation indicator. In short, visual feedback is used to acknowledge, confirm or validate choices and in some cases, notify or raise awareness to specific items.

Similarly, StellarX provides you with helpful Hints to guide you along the way. For example, you'll notice Hints appear when you hover over icons in your Control Panel as demonstrated below.

Audio Feedback

Audio cues may be used alone or in combination with other interaction feedback methods to acknowledge or validate your choices. For instance, pressing on a virtual button may cause a ding sound.

StellarX also uses audio feedback to guide your immersive Experience. For example, when you navigate the Control Panel, audio feedback is used to bring awareness to the icon you've pointed to, selected, or hovered over.

In addition to using audio feedback for navigation and locomotion purposes, StellarX also relies on contextual spatial audio cues to augment the experiential immersion of Experiences. In other words, each Space is equipped with multiple sound sources that contribute to making them as realistic as possible. For instance, if the atmospheric settings of your Space are adaptive in nature, you just might hear the gentle wind hush about the brittle branches and rust-colored tree leaves as you wander through your lush and primeval virtual forest.

Picture this...💭 You're exploring your StellarX Space.

You're strolling along a busy town square. You're surrounded by concrete giants; each decorated with ornate gold and silvered lettering. The myriad of mirrored facades glistens against the sun's bright reflections. Suddenly, a hurried passer-by catches you off guard as he brushes past you. You watch as he zigs and zags pushing his way through the hustling and bustling herd of busy-minded business men and women mindlessly making their way to work.

Amidst the crowd's unrhythmic footstep clatter and meaningless weekend chatter, you hear sirens fading in the distance.

Ambulance? Police? Or, just a truck backing out of a narrow alleyway?

As you teleport your way to the impressive granite-stoned Public Library building on 5th and 9th, you hear the sirens get louder. You're getting closer; you can feel it.

You recognize the siren's sound pattern: an ambulance. You're sure of it.

You make your way, tracking down the sound to uncover the scene. You take a left on Main, then a right on 12th.

There it is. An ambulance parked outside the historic Gramercy Estates building...

You see, these dynamic and contextually adaptive spatial audio cues are used to make the Space and Experience feel as authentic as possible, which wouldn't be possible with static audio cues.

Haptic Feedback

Haptic technology involves using force, motion, or vibration to recreate a realistic sense of touch. Not only does it enhance the remote control of devices, but also provides contextual cues to facilitate the naturally interactive dynamic between humans and machines, more specifically those that adopt a Human-in-the-Loop approach.

When it comes to XR, you're most likely using XR controllers to interact with assets and navigate StellarX. Thanks to this physical hardware it's possible to use haptic feedback to validate, confirm, and guide you through your Experiences. For instance, if you Grab an asset in Space, your virtual controller must collide or come into contact with the asset itself. When the collision occurs, haptic feedback, in the form of a slight controller vibration, is used to indicate that you've successfully come into contact with the asset and can now interact with it as you please.