Pointing at the HUD: Gesture Interaction Using a Leap Motion

Head Up Displays ( HUDs) have the advantage to be visible in the line-of-sight of the driver, minimizing visual distraction. Otherwise, it is not easy to manipulate them since they are virtually positioned behind the windshield. We used a Leap Motion to achieve a gesture-controlled HUD. We conducted a simulator study with two variations of a simplified HUD: one with three segments and one with four segments. We show that the 3-segment HUD is superior to the 4-segment HUD in terms of interaction time and error rate. We provide data on the horizontal angle a HUD segment is chosen with the index finger of the right hand when selecting one of the three respectively four segments of the HUD. Our results can inform HUD interaction designers on interpreting mid-air pointing gestures to achieve higher success rates.