Comparison of multiple 3D rotation methods

In this paper, we present an experimental comparison of 3D rotation techniques. In all techniques, the third degree of freedom is controlled by the mouse-wheel. The investigated techniques are Bell´s Trackball, Shoemake´s Arcball and the Two-axis Valuator method. The result from a pilot showed no performance or accuracy difference among these three. However, we did observe minor differences in an experiment with more participants and trials, though these differences were not significant. Also, from questionnaires, we found that most of the users considered the use of mouse wheel helpful for completing the tasks.