Mobile Phones as 3-DOF Controllers: A Comparative Study

Conventional input devices such as the mouse and keyboard lack in intuitiveness when it comes to 3D manipulation tasks. In this paper, we explore the use of accelerometer and digital compass equipped mobile phones as 3-DOF controllers in a 3D object rotation task. We put the mobile phone up against the established standards, a mouse and a touch pen and compare their performance in a rotation task. Our preliminary evaluation indicates that for this type of task, with only 5 minutes of practice the mobile phone is significantly faster than both the mouse and the touch pen.