805 research outputs found

    I Am The Passenger: How Visual Motion Cues Can Influence Sickness For In-Car VR

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    This paper explores the use of VR Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) in-car and in-motion for the first time. Immersive HMDs are becoming everyday consumer items and, as they offer new possibilities for entertainment and productivity, people will want to use them during travel in, for example, autonomous cars. However, their use is confounded by motion sickness caused in-part by the restricted visual perception of motion conflicting with physically perceived vehicle motion (accelerations/rotations detected by the vestibular system). Whilst VR HMDs restrict visual perception of motion, they could also render it virtually, potentially alleviating sensory conflict. To study this problem, we conducted the first on-road and in motion study to systematically investigate the effects of various visual presentations of the real-world motion of a car on the sickness and immersion of VR HMD wearing passengers. We established new baselines for VR in-car motion sickness, and found that there is no one best presentation with respect to balancing sickness and immersion. Instead, user preferences suggest different solutions are required for differently susceptible users to provide usable VR in-car. This work provides formative insights for VR designers and an entry point for further research into enabling use of VR HMDs, and the rich experiences they offer, when travelling

    How to Build an Embodiment Lab: Achieving Body Representation Illusions in Virtual Reality

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    Advances in computer graphics algorithms and virtual reality (VR) systems, together with the reduction in cost of associated equipment, have led scientists to consider VR as a useful tool for conducting experimental studies in fields such as neuroscience and experimental psychology. In particular virtual body ownership, where the feeling of ownership over a virtual body is elicited in the participant, has become a useful tool in the study of body representation, in cognitive neuroscience and psychology, concerned with how the brain represents the body. Although VR has been shown to be a useful tool for exploring body ownership illusions, integrating the various technologies necessary for such a system can be daunting. In this paper we discuss the technical infrastructure necessary to achieve virtual embodiment. We describe a basic VR system and how it may be used for this purpose, and then extend this system with the introduction of real-time motion capture, a simple haptics system and the integration of physiological and brain electrical activity recordings

    Examining the role of smart TVs and VR HMDs in synchronous at-a-distance media consumption

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    This article examines synchronous at-a-distance media consumption from two perspectives: How it can be facilitated using existing consumer displays (through TVs combined with smartphones), and imminently available consumer displays (through virtual reality (VR) HMDs combined with RGBD sensing). First, we discuss results from an initial evaluation of a synchronous shared at-a-distance smart TV system, CastAway. Through week-long in-home deployments with five couples, we gain formative insights into the adoption and usage of at-a-distance media consumption and how couples communicated during said consumption. We then examine how the imminent availability and potential adoption of consumer VR HMDs could affect preferences toward how synchronous at-a-distance media consumption is conducted, in a laboratory study of 12 pairs, by enhancing media immersion and supporting embodied telepresence for communication. Finally, we discuss the implications these studies have for the near-future of consumer synchronous at-a-distance media consumption. When combined, these studies begin to explore a design space regarding the varying ways in which at-a-distance media consumption can be supported and experienced (through music, TV content, augmenting existing TV content for immersion, and immersive VR content), what factors might influence usage and adoption and the implications for supporting communication and telepresence during media consumption

    KAVE - Kinect Cave: design, tools and comparative analysis with other VR technologies

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    Virtual reality has been delivered through many different forms and iterations. One of them is the CAVE. CAVE systems have developed over the yearsbuttheyarestillhaveprohibitivecostsandarerathercomplextoimplement. In this thesis we propose our own low-cost CAVE system - comprised of details about the setup as well as a calibration software that was developedtohelpachievethegoalsofthisthesis-andcompareittootherlost-cost CAVEsfoundintheliterature. Thisthesisalsoencompassesapresencestudy that was performed as a result of assessing the resulting CAVE. This study compared CAVE, PC and Head-Mounted Display in terms of presence and workloadthroughtheuseofvalidatedquestionnairesfoundintheliterature. The resulting data showed HMD induced higher sense of presence than the CAVE, and CAVE induced higher sense of presence than the PC. Regarding workloadofthesystem,thedataalsoshowednostatisticallymeaningfuldifferences between the three technologies except for the physical demand of performing a task in a CAVE compared to performing the same task in the PC

    Augmented reality for computer assisted orthopaedic surgery

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    In recent years, computer-assistance and robotics have established their presence in operating theatres and found success in orthopaedic procedures. Benefits of computer assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS) have been thoroughly explored in research, finding improvements in clinical outcomes, through increased control and precision over surgical actions. However, human-computer interaction in CAOS remains an evolving field, through emerging display technologies including augmented reality (AR) – a fused view of the real environment with virtual, computer-generated holograms. Interactions between clinicians and patient-specific data generated during CAOS are limited to basic 2D interactions on touchscreen monitors, potentially creating clutter and cognitive challenges in surgery. Work described in this thesis sought to explore the benefits of AR in CAOS through: an integration between commercially available AR and CAOS systems, creating a novel AR-centric surgical workflow to support various tasks of computer-assisted knee arthroplasty, and three pre–clinical studies exploring the impact of the new AR workflow on both existing and newly proposed quantitative and qualitative performance metrics. Early research focused on cloning the (2D) user-interface of an existing CAOS system onto a virtual AR screen and investigating any resulting impacts on usability and performance. An infrared-based registration system is also presented, describing a protocol for calibrating commercial AR headsets with optical trackers, calculating a spatial transformation between surgical and holographic coordinate frames. The main contribution of this thesis is a novel AR workflow designed to support computer-assisted patellofemoral arthroplasty. The reported workflow provided 3D in-situ holographic guidance for CAOS tasks including patient registration, pre-operative planning, and assisted-cutting. Pre-clinical experimental validation on a commercial system (NAVIO®, Smith & Nephew) for these contributions demonstrates encouraging early-stage results showing successful deployment of AR to CAOS systems, and promising indications that AR can enhance the clinician’s interactions in the future. The thesis concludes with a summary of achievements, corresponding limitations and future research opportunities.Open Acces

    Seeing Our Blind Spots: Smart Glasses-Based Simulation to Increase Design Students’ Awareness of Visual Impairment

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    As the population ages, many will acquire visual impairments. To improve design for these users, it is essential to build awareness of their perspective during everyday routines, especially for design students. Although several visual impairment simulation toolkits exist in both academia and as commercial products, analog, and static visual impairment simulation tools do not simulate effects concerning the user’s eye movements. Meanwhile, VR and video see-through-based AR simulation methods are constrained by smaller fields of view when compared with the natural human visual field and also suffer from vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC) which correlates with visual fatigue, headache, and dizziness. In this paper, we enable an on-the-go, VAC-free, visually impaired experience by leveraging our optical see-through glasses. The FOV of our glasses is approximately 160 degrees for horizontal and 140 degrees for vertical, and participants can experience both losses of central vision and loss of peripheral vision at different severities. Our evaluation (n =14) indicates that the glasses can significantly and effectively reduce visual acuity and visual field without causing typical motion sickness symptoms such as headaches and or visual fatigue. Questionnaires and qualitative feedback also showed how the glasses helped to increase participants’ awareness of visual impairment

    User-centered Virtual Environment Assessment And Design For Cognitive Rehabilitation Applications

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    Virtual environment (VE) design for cognitive rehabilitation necessitates a new methodology to ensure the validity of the resulting rehabilitation assessment. We propose that benchmarking the VE system technology utilizing a user-centered approach should precede the VE construction. Further, user performance baselines should be measured throughout testing as a control for adaptive effects that may confound the metrics chosen to evaluate the rehabilitation treatment. To support these claims we present data obtained from two modules of a user-centered head-mounted display (HMD) assessment battery, specifically resolution visual acuity and stereoacuity. Resolution visual acuity and stereoacuity assessments provide information about the image quality achieved by an HMD based upon its unique system parameters. When applying a user-centered approach, we were able to quantify limitations in the VE system components (e.g., low microdisplay resolution) and separately point to user characteristics (e.g., changes in dark focus) that may introduce error in the evaluation of VE based rehabilitation protocols. Based on these results, we provide guidelines for calibrating and benchmarking HMDs. In addition, we discuss potential extensions of the assessment to address higher level usability issues. We intend to test the proposed framework within the Human Experience Modeler (HEM), a testbed created at the University of Central Florida to evaluate technologies that may enhance cognitive rehabilitation effectiveness. Preliminary results of a feasibility pilot study conducted with a memory impaired participant showed that the HEM provides the control and repeatability needed to conduct such technology comparisons. Further, the HEM affords the opportunity to integrate new brain imaging technologies (i.e., functional Near Infrared Imaging) to evaluate brain plasticity associated with VE based cognitive rehabilitation

    Visualization and (Mis)Perceptions in Virtual Reality

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    Virtual Reality (VR) technologies are now being widely adopted for use in areas as diverse as surgical and military training, architectural design, driving and flight simulation, psychotherapy, and gaming/entertainment. A large range of visual displays (from desktop monitors and head-mounted displays (HMDs) to large projection systems) are all currently being employed where each display technology offers unique advantages as well as disadvantages. In addition to technical considerations involved in choosing a VR interface, it is also critical to consider perceptual and psychophysical factors concerned with visual displays. It is now widely recognized that perceptual judgments of particular spatial properties are different in VR than in the real world. In this paper, we will provide a brief overview of what is currently known about the kinds of perceptual errors that can be observed in virtual environments (VEs). Subsequently we will outline the advantages and disadvantages of particular visual displays by foc using on the perceptual and behavioral constraints that are relevant for each. Overall, the main objective of this paper is to highlight the importance of understanding perceptual issues when evaluating different types of visual simulation in VEs
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