A HAND GESTURE-BASED INTERFACE FOR DESIGN REVIEW USING LEAP MOTION CONTROLLER

Computer-aided Design (CAD) has improved the original pencil and paper-based design drawing method. Designers can modify their designs using the mouse and keyboard as input devices of CAD commands. But there is a lack of design tools using a natural interface with an intuitive way for the design input. A hand gesture-based design interface is proposed in this paper for the review of CAD models in virtual environments. Leap Motion Controller is used to capture hand gestures of users to operate CAD models and model components. A template mapping method is applied in the gesture recognition for the manipulation of CAD models. Applications of the proposed interface show that the gesture input can effectively operate the model. User test results verify that the proposed system provides a natural and intuitive user experience in the CAD model manipulation compared to the traditional input method using the computer mouse and keyboard.