Stereo 3D mouse (S3D-Mouse): measuring ground truth for medical data in a virtual 3D space

We introduce a novel approach of applying stereoscopy principles to simulate a virtual 3D pointing device based on two or more views of an ordinary mouse cursor. The system assists a user point to a desired location inside the virtual 3D space projected by a stereoscopic display. The technique is designed for easy perception, and thus interpretation, of depth information in a 3D context. A target application is the measuring of ground truth for 3D medical data. To illustrate how our virtual stereoscopic cursor works, we have implemented a multi-view stereo visualization software and a simple 3D editing toolset for manipulating 3D objects. Experimental results suggest the effectiveness of using the device in term of detection accuracy and user satisfaction compared to using an ordinary mouse on a conventional 2D screen.