A comparative evaluation of direct hand and wand interactions on consumer devices
Abstract
Abstract Along with the popularization of VR Head Mounted Displays, there is an increasing demand for understanding how to use these devices within VR applications. This work evaluates the use of two input techniques for VR applications: wands and hands. We perform experiments using consumer devices (Leap Motion Controller and HTC Vive), aiming at understanding how popular hardware respond to users’ needs. Five distinct scenarios were tested, exploring both near and far object interaction. The evaluation happens in three steps: user profile evaluation, system performance evaluation, and the System Usability Scale questionnaire. The results showed that even with a lower task accuracy, natural interaction provided by using a hand representation in the virtual world gained user’s preference when interacting with virtual elements that were close to the user. For distant object interaction, it still needs some improvement.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Figueiredo et al. [44] reported that hand tracking was liked more than the controller, even though hands were not as precise as the controllers.
“It is noteworthy that Figueiredo et al. [44] reported that hand tracking was liked more than the controller, even though hands were not as precise as the controllers.”
From Trade-Off between Task Accuracy, Task Completion Time and Naturalness for Direct Object Manipulation in Virtual Reality (2022) · cites this paper as [44]
Some participants in [44] reported feeling a higher level of immersion with hand tracking.
“In addition, some participants in [44] reported feeling a higher level of immersion with hand tracking.”
From Trade-Off between Task Accuracy, Task Completion Time and Naturalness for Direct Object Manipulation in Virtual Reality (2022) · cites this paper as [44]
Some participants in [44] liked hands as they were intuitive to use and did not require any learning, while some participants with more experience with the controller did not feel that there was a high learning curve for the controllers.
“Their study showed that some participants liked hands, as they were intuitive to use and did not require any learning, while some participants with more experience with the controller did not feel that there was a high learning curve for the controllers.”
From Trade-Off between Task Accuracy, Task Completion Time and Naturalness for Direct Object Manipulation in Virtual Reality (2022) · cites this paper as [44]
Cites
SUS: A 'Quick and Dirty' Usability Scale
(1996) · Usability Evaluation In Industry · doi:10.1201/9781498710411-35 · Cited by 8,989 · see citing works
The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for Goodness of Fit
Massey, F. J. (1951) · Journal of the American Statistical Association · doi:10.1080/01621459.1951.10500769 · Cited by 7,210 · see citing works
An Empirical Evaluation of the System Usability Scale
Bangor, A., Kortum, P. T., & Miller, J. T. (2008) · International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447310802205776 · Cited by 5,181 · see citing works
A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays
Milgram, P., & Kishino, F. (1994) · IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems · Cited by 4,614 · see citing works
Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Mark, G., Fussell, S. R., Lampe, C., Schraefel, M., Hourcade, J., Appert, C., & Wigdor, D. J. (2017) · International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3025453 · Cited by 2,222 · see citing works
The Factor Structure of the System Usability Scale
Lewis, J. R., & Sauro, J. (2009) · Lecture Notes in Computer Science · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02806-9_12 · Cited by 1,278 · see citing works
SOME RAPID APPROXIMATE STATISTICAL PROCEDURES
Wilcoxon, F. (1950) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1950.tb53974.x · Cited by 1,198 · see citing works
(2015) · Cited by 579 · see citing works
Distant freehand pointing and clicking on very large, high resolution displays
Vogel, D., & Balakrishnan, R. (2005) · ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) · doi:10.1145/1095034.1095041 · Cited by 432 · see citing works
Virtual Environment Interaction Techniques
Mine, M. R. (1995) · Cited by 404 · see citing works
Lloréns, R., Noé, E., Colomer, C., & Alcañíz, M. (2014) · Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation · doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2014.10.019 · Cited by 358 · see citing works
Poupyrev, I., Ichikawa, T., Weghorst, S., & Billinghurst, M. (1998) · Computer Graphics Forum · doi:10.1111/1467-8659.00252 · Cited by 353 · see citing works
Bowman, D. A., & Hodges, L. F. (1999) · Journal of Visual Languages & Computing · doi:10.1006/jvlc.1998.0111 · Cited by 319 · see citing works
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
(2002) · doi:10.1145/503376 · Cited by 306 · see citing works
Myers, B. A., Bhatnagar, R., Nichols, J. W., Peck, C. H., Kong, D., Miller, R. C., & Long, A. C. (2002) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/503376.503383 · Cited by 282 · see citing works
Virtual Reality-based pilot training for underground coal miners
Grabowski, A., & Jankowski, J. (2014) · Safety Science · doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2014.09.017 · Cited by 220 · see citing works
Eye Movement-Based Human-Computer Interaction Techniques: Toward Non-Command Interfaces
Jacob, R. J. K. (2003) · Cited by 214 · see citing works
Meldrum, D., Glennon, A., Herdman, S. J., Murray, D., & McConn‐Walsh, R. (2011) · Disability and Rehabilitation Assistive Technology · doi:10.3109/17483107.2011.616922 · Cited by 197 · see citing works
Lin, H.-C. K., Chen, M.-C., & Chang, C. (2013) · Interactive Learning Environments · doi:10.1080/10494820.2013.817435 · Cited by 171 · see citing works
Liu, M.-Y., Nancel, M., & Vogel, D. (2015) · ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) · doi:10.1145/2807442.2807489 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Hsu, H., & Lachenbruch, P. A. (2014) · Wiley StatsRef: Statistics Reference Online · doi:10.1002/9781118445112.stat05929 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Haque, F., Nancel, M., & Vogel, D. (2015) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/2702123.2702133 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
User-Defined Game Input for Smart Glasses in Public Space
Tung, Y.-C., Hsu, C., Wang, H.-Y., et al. (2015) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/2702123.2702214 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
INPUT TECHNOLOGIES AND TECHNIQUES
Hinckley, K. (2007) · CRC Press eBooks · doi:10.1201/9781410615862-19 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Mid-Air Pointing on Ultra-Walls
Nancel, M., Pietriga, E., Chapuis, O., & Beaudouin-Lafon, M. (2015) · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction · doi:10.1145/2766448 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Light-difference threshold and subjective brightness in the periphery of the visual field
Pöppel, E., & Harvey, L. O. (1973) · Psychological Research · doi:10.1007/bf00424967 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
A usability scale for handheld augmented reality
Santos, M. E. C., Taketomi, T., Sandor, C., Polvi, J., Yamamoto, G., & Kato, H. (2014) · ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST) · doi:10.1145/2671015.2671019 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Banerjee, A., Burstyn, J., Girouard, A., & Vertegaal, R. (2011) · ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces (ITS) · doi:10.1145/2076354.2076357 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Toward Standard Usability Questionnaires for Handheld Augmented Reality
Santos, M. E. C., Polvi, J., Taketomi, T., Yamamoto, G., Sandor, C., & Kato, H. (2015) · IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications · doi:10.1109/mcg.2015.94 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Carter, M., Velloso, E., Downs, J., Sellen, A. J., O'Hara, K. P., & Vetere, F. (2016) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/2858036.2858284 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Pointing at a Distance with Everyday Smart Devices
Siddhpuria, S., Malacria, S., Nancel, M., et al. (2018) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3173574.3173747 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Input Technologies and Techniques
Hinckley, K., & Wigdor, D. (2012) · CRC Press eBooks · doi:10.1201/9781003401797-8 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Interaction Techniques for Immersive Virtual Environments: Design, Evaluation, and Application
Bowman, D. A. (1998) · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Matulic, F., & Vogel, D. (2018) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3173574.3173819 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Proceedings of the 2016 Symposium on Spatial User Interaction
(2016) · doi:10.1145/2983310 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Wands Are Magic: A Comparison of Devices Used in 3D Pointing Interfaces
Henschke, M., Gedeon, T., Jones, R., et al. (2013) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-40477-1_32 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Optimising Free Hand Selection in Large Displays by Adapting to User's Physical Movements
Lou, X., Li, A. X., Peng, R., & Hansen, P. (2016) · Symposium on Spatial User Interaction · doi:10.1145/2983310.2985754 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Lee, J. H., An, S.-G., Kim, Y., et al. (2017) · ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) · doi:10.1145/3131785.3131816 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
2 of the 42 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- IBM Corp, 2013, IBM SPSS statistics for windows, Version, 22
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Kourtesis, P., Collina, S., Doumas, L. A. A., & MacPherson, S. E. (2019) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2019.00342 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
“However, direct hand interactions are easier than 6DoF controllers-wands in terms of familiarization with their controls and efficiency (Sportillo et al., 2017; Figueiredo et al., 2018).”
InfluentialKourtesis, P., Korre, D., Collina, S., Doumas, L. A. A., & MacPherson, S. E. (2020) · Frontiers in Computer Science · doi:10.3389/fcomp.2019.00012 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Serrano, R., Morillo, P., Casas, S., & Cruz‐Neira, C. (2020) · IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems · doi:10.1109/thms.2020.2984746 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Enhance VR: A Multisensory Approach to Cognitive Training and Monitoring
Brugada-Ramentol, V., Bozorgzadeh, A., & Jalali, H. (2022) · Frontiers in Digital Health · doi:10.3389/fdgth.2022.916052 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
“The Enhance VR app is available for headsets with six degrees of freedom (6DoF), which provide a seemingly naturalistic interaction with the environment by the use of controllers (72).”
BackgroundWu, H., Luo, W., Pan, N., Nan, S., Deng, Y., Fu, S., & Yang, L. (2019) · Human-centric Computing and Information Sciences · doi:10.1186/s13673-019-0204-7 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Open data exploration in virtual reality: a comparative study of input technology
Reski, N., & Alissandrakis, A. (2020) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-019-00378-w · Cited by 48 · see citing works
“While some of the presented studies show similarities, the closer related to our work are probably the recent studies by Gusai et al. (2017), Streppel et al. (2018), Figueiredo et al.”
BackgroundResultInfluentialKangas, J., Kumar, S. K., Mehtonen, H., Järnstedt, J., & Raisamo, R. (2022) · Multimodal Technologies and Interaction · doi:10.3390/mti6010006 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
“[44] reported that hand tracking was liked more than the controller, even though hands were not as precise as the controllers.”
BackgroundInfluentialKourtesis, P., & MacPherson, S. E. (2021) · Computers in Human Behavior Reports · doi:10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100151 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
“Navigation within the virtual environment should be facilitated by teleportation or physical movement or a combination of both (Porcino et al., 2017), and the interactions with the virtual environment should be ergonomic and naturalistic (Figueiredo et al., 2018).”
BackgroundMethodThe impact of the input interface in a virtual environment: the Vive controller and the Myo armband
Paolis, L. T. D., & Luca, V. D. (2019) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-019-00409-6 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Terruzzi, S., Albini, F., Massetti, G., Etzi, R., Gallace, A., & Vallar, G. (2023) · Neuropsychology Review · doi:10.1007/s11065-023-09586-3 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
“Direct hand interactions are easier in terms of familiarization with their controls and efficiency and offer a more pleasant user experience; how - ever, they appear less accurate than wands with six degrees of freedom of movement (Figueiredo et al., 2018; Sportillo et al., 2017).”
BackgroundA novel upper-limb tracking system in a virtual environment for stroke rehabilitation
Cha, K., Wang, J., Li, Y., Shen, L., Chen, Z., & Long, J. (2021) · Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation · doi:10.1186/s12984-021-00957-6 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
“For partial upper-limb tracking, consumer devices, including hand-held controllers such as Oculus Touch or HTC VIVE controllers, and motion sensing devices, such as Kinect and Leap Motion controllers, are widely used [10].”
MethodWang, Y., Hu, Y., & Chen, Y. (2020) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-020-00464-4 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
“Ray-casting has been widely used in both the conventional VR systems (Jeong et al. 2016) and the consumer-grade VR systems (Figueiredo et al. 2018) due to its simplicity and generality.”
MethodInertial Sensor Based Solution for Finger Motion Tracking
Lemak, S. S., Александрович, Ч. В., Uvarov, I., Kruchinina, A., Белоусова, М. Д., Бородкин, Л. И., & Mironenko, M. (2020) · Computers · doi:10.3390/computers9020040 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Zhou, X., Qin, H., Xiao, W., et al. (2020) · Symmetry · doi:10.3390/sym12101723 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
“Among the existing research on hand interaction, most studies have focused on gesture recognition [34,35] or interaction methods for specific tasks [27,32].”
BackgroundResultStudy on Hand–Eye Cordination Area with Bare-Hand Click Interaction in Virtual Reality
Zhou, X., Jin, Y. Q., Jia, L., et al. (2021) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app11136146 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Boem, A., & Turchet, L. (2024) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103231 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Robust Optical Based Hand Interaction for Virtual Reality
Worrallo, A., & Hartley, T. P. (2021) · IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics · doi:10.1109/tvcg.2021.3083411 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Exploring Input Approximations for Control Panels in Virtual Reality
Tatzgern, M., & Birgmann, C. (2021) · IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) · doi:10.1109/vr50410.2021.00092 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“In a recent study, Figueiredo et al. [14] compared direct hand interaction using a Leap Motion sensor for button and slider interaction to simple controller-based virtual hand input.”
BackgroundKourtesis, P., Collina, S., Doumas, L. A. A., & MacPherson, S. E. (2021) · doi:10.36227/techrxiv.13858154 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Menu user interface design for Head-mounted display Virtual Reality: A systematic literature review
Pandey, R., & Sorathia, K. B. (2025) · Computers & Graphics · doi:10.1016/j.cag.2025.104402 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Sensorimotor learning in immersive virtual reality: a scoping literature review
Ratcliffe, J., & Tokarchuk, L. N. (2021) · IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR) · doi:10.1109/aivr52153.2021.00061 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
What if Video See-Through in HMDs Changes How Accurately We Perform Tasks?
Domingues, G. C., Vieira, V., Yoshida, L., et al. (2024) · Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR) · doi:10.1145/3691573.3691599 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Mobile Office: A Mobile AR Systems for Productivity Applications in Industrial Environments
Linares-Garcia, D. A., Dongre, P., Roofigari‐Esfahan, N., et al. (2021) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-77599-5_35 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Handows: A Palm-Based Interactive Multi-Window Management System in Virtual Reality
Wang, J.-D., Ke, Z., Ren, H., et al. (2025) · IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics · doi:10.1109/tvcg.2025.3616843 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“In contrast, VR platforms generally provide only basic interaction techniques for spatial windows [6, 7], often relying on ray-casting with controllers or mid-air gestures for selection and manipulation [24,33,54].”
Brito, C., & Mitchell, K. (2019) · ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Virtual-Reality Continuum and its Applications in Industry (VRCAI) · doi:10.1145/3359997.3365690 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Design of Manipulator Control System Based on Leap Motion
Ma, Y., Li, Q., Zhang, M., et al. (2021) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-89095-7_9 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Kemanji, K. V., Mpwadina, R., & Meixner, G. (2022) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-06015-1_24 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
An evaluation of hand interaction metaphors for immersive environments
Lafci, M. T., Strzebkowski, R., Chojecki, P., et al. (2023) · International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX) · doi:10.1109/qomex58391.2023.10178667 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“However, requiring the user to explicitly hold a controller may feel unnatural in many scenarios [6] and is prone to break the immersion.”
BackgroundBeyondDeskVR: an extended virtual hand interaction system in virtual reality
Zhang, R., & Zhou, X. (2025) · Behaviour and Information Technology · doi:10.1080/0144929x.2025.2469669 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“In 3D VEs, users have the option to use either direct metaphors (Figueiredo et al. 2018) or indirect metaphors (Brasier et al. 2020) to accomplish most interaction tasks, which fall into categories such as pointing selection (Kim, Park, and Kim 2020), manipulation (Goh, Sunar, and Ismail 2019),…”
Kourtesis, P., Collina, S., Doumas, L. A. A., & MacPherson, S. E. (2021) · doi:10.36227/techrxiv.13858154.v1 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Du, X., Jia, L., Wu, J., Peng, N., Zhou, X., & Xue, C. (2025) · Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces · doi:10.1007/s12193-025-00455-2 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Figueiredo et al. (2018) compared hand-based natural pointing with controller use in common interaction tasks, noting a higher user preference for the more intuitive hand-based method [28].”
Foreword to the Special Section on SVR 2018
Nedel, L., Teichrieb, V., & Billinghurst, M. (2018) · Computers & Graphics · doi:10.1016/j.cag.2018.10.014
Self-citationThe Effect of a Full Upper-Limb Control System and Its Usage in Stroke RehabilitationPreprint
Cha, K., Wang, J., Li, Y., Shen, L., Chen, Z., & Long, J. (2021) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-164525/v1
“For partial upper-limb tracking, consumer devices including hand-held controllers such as Oculus Touch or HTC VIVE controllers and Motion Sensing devices such as Kinect and Leap Motion controller are widely used [27].”
MethodCosta, W. D. L., Figueiredo, L. S., Teixeira, J. M., et al. (2021) · SIBGRAPI Conference on Graphics, Patterns and Images (SIBGRAPI) · doi:10.1109/sibgrapi54419.2021.00017
Self-citationA Comparative Study of Various 3D Interface Layout Experiments Based on Virtual Hand Interaction
Qiu, T., Zhou, X., & Li, H. (2023) · doi:10.1109/ieem58616.2023.10406984
“As an important input method, gesture interaction has higher freedom and immersion, is more in line with the user's psychological perception, and shows higher usability in spatial judgment and interactive performance [6].”
MethodPerception and Precision: How VST and OST Headsets Influence Task Execution
Domingues, G. C., de Oliveira, L. Z., Yoshida, L., et al. (2025) · Journal on Interactive Systems · doi:10.5753/jis.2025.5921
Self-citationAssessing Redundant Interface Designs for Precise Number Input in Virtual Reality
Matono, P. M., Roupa, I. F., Campos, P., et al. (2025) · ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST) · doi:10.1145/3756884.3765979
“VR numpads have been studied in various contexts, including 3D modeling [11], PIN authentication [44], system control via button interaction [5, 9, 17], selection tasks [49], inputting mathematical expressions [57], and even money transaction [31].”
Cha, K., Wang, J., Li, Y., Shen, L., Chen, Z., & Long, J. (2021) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.17087864
BÜKER, M. B., & Martín‐Gutiérrez, J. (2026) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-29653-5_29
- Authors
- Figueiredo, L., Rodrigues, E., Teixeira, J., & Teichrieb, V.
- Affiliations
- Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Figueiredo, Lucas
- Venue
- Computers & Graphics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-12
- Volume
- 77
- Pages
- 108-121
- ISSN
- 0097-8493 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2897452617
- Semantic Scholar
- 9a67f9f89dad748ccfcf1b5d3eef06fd359c6162
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 5.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Computers & Graphics (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Interactive and Immersive Displays
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Hand Gesture Recognition Systems
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Keywords
- hand tracking, virtual reality input devices, Leap Motion, HTC Vive, natural interaction, user preferences, System Usability Scale
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
