Freehand Grasping: An Analysis of Grasping for Docking Tasks in Virtual Reality

Natural and intuitive interaction such as freehand grasping of virtual objects is still a significant challenge in VR due to the dexterous versatility of the human grasping actions. Currently, the design considerations for creating freehand grasping interactions in VR are drawn from the body of historical knowledge presented for real object grasping. While this may be suitable for some applications, recent work has shown that users grasp virtual objects differently than they grasp real objects, presenting an absence of knowledge on how users intuitively grasp virtual objects. To begin to address this, we present an elicitation study where participants (N =39) grasped 16 virtual objects categorised by shape in a mixed docking task exploring placement and rotation. We report on a Wizard of OZ methodology, extract Grasp Type and Grasp Dimension and present grasping patterns in VR. Our results are of value to be taken forward into a framework of recommendations for grasping interactions, as well as parameterizing grasp types for developing intuitive grasp models and thus begin to bridge the gap in understanding natural grasping patters for VR object interactions.