Withindows: A Framework for Transitional Desktop and Immersive User Interfaces

The uniqueness of 3D interaction is often used to justify levels of user fatigue that are significantly higher than those of desktop systems. Object manipulation and symbolic manipulation techniques based strictly on first person perspective are also generally less efficient than their desktop counterparts. Instead of considering the two environments as distinct, authors have focused on the idea that desktop applications will likely need to transition smoothly into full immersion through intermediate states. The Withindows framework uses image-plane selection and through the-lens techniques in an attempt to smooth the movement of both traditional and immersive applications across transitional states such as desktop stereo and multi-display setups.