  Large curved displays have emerged as a powerful platform for collaboration,
data visualization, and entertainment. These displays provide highly immersive
experiences, a wider field of view, and higher satisfaction levels. Yet, large
curved displays are not commonly available due to their high costs. With the
recent advancement of Head Mounted Displays (HMDs), large curved displays can
be simulated in Virtual Reality (VR) with minimal cost and space requirements.
However, to consider the virtual display as an alternative to the physical
display, it is necessary to uncover user performance differences (e.g.,
pointing speed and accuracy) between these two platforms. In this paper, we
explored users' pointing performance on both physical and virtual large curved
displays. Specifically, with two studies, we investigate users' performance
between the two platforms for standard pointing factors such as target width,
target amplitude as well as users' position relative to the screen. Results
from user studies reveal no significant difference in pointing performance
between the two platforms when users are located at the same position relative
to the screen. In addition, we observe users' pointing performance improves
when they are located at the center of a semi-circular display compared to
off-centered positions. We conclude by outlining design implications for
pointing on large curved virtual displays. These findings show that large
curved virtual displays are a viable alternative to physical displays for
pointing tasks.
