Goal

The goal of this project was to create an application that will allow the user to use their bare hands as a tool to create 3D models. Hands can move freely in a 3D space as opposed to the 2D plane of a mouse, making them much more suitable for creating 3D models. In addition, creating shapes using the hands is an action everyone is familiar with. Being able to use hands instead of a mouse to create 3D models will make creating models much easier, and consequently, faster. Another challenge was to be able to create precision with the hands as controllers, so be able to create something the exact length you want it to.

Motivation

While 3D modelling is a very useful tool, it comes with some limitations. The most significant issue is that the user is working with a 2D representation of a 3D model, applying modifications to it in a 2D plane. This often results in the user having to time-consumingly edit every single modification from different angles in order to get the desired result. In addition, a regular computer mouse is only capable of 2D movement, further limiting the way the user interacts with the model. 3D mice exist, but they are not commonplace and take time to get used to. Sculpting 3D models is not so much sculpting as it is a lot of clicking and dragging. So this culminates in the problem: How to interface with a 3D model in 3D space in a natural way.

Movie

Below a short introductory movie of the final prototype can be found.