A 360 VR and Wi-Fi Tracking Based Autonomous Telepresence Robot for Virtual Tour

This study proposes a novel mobile robot teleoperation interface that demonstrates the applicability of a robot-aided remote telepresence system with a virtual reality (VR) device to a virtual tour scenario. To improve realism and provide an intuitive replica of the remote environment for the user interface, the implemented system automatically moves a mobile robot (viewpoint) while displaying a 360-degree live video streamed from the robot to a VR device (Oculus Rift). Upon the user choosing a destination location from a given set of options, the robot generates a route based on a shortest path graph and travels along that the route using a wireless signal tracking method that depends on measuring the direction of arrival (DOA) of radio signals. This paper presents an overview of the system and architecture, and discusses its implementation aspects. Experimental results show that the proposed system is able to move to the destination stably using the signal tracking method, and that at the same time, the user can remotely control the robot through the VR interface

Towards Making Videos Accessible for Low Vision Screen Magnifier Users

People with low vision who use screen magnifiers to interact with computing devices find it very challenging to interact with dynamically changing digital content such as videos, since they do not have the luxury of time to manually move, i.e., pan the magnifier lens to different regions of interest (ROIs) or zoom into these ROIs before the content changes across frames. In this paper, we present SViM, a first of its kind screen-magnifier interface for such users that leverages advances in computer vision, particularly video saliency models, to identify salient ROIs in videos. SViM\u27s interface allows users to zoom in/out of any point of interest, switch between ROIs via mouse clicks and provides assistive panning with the added flexibility that lets the user explore other regions of the video besides the ROIs identified by SViM. Subjective and objective evaluation of a user study with 13 low vision screen magnifier users revealed that overall the participants had a better user experience with SViM over extant screen magnifiers, indicative of the former\u27s promise and potential for making videos accessible to low vision screen magnifier users

Redirected Scene Rotation for Immersive Movie Experiences

Virtual reality (VR) allows for immersive and natural viewing experiences; however, these often expect users to be standing and able to physically turn and move easily. Seated VR applications, specifically immersive 360-degree movies, must be appropriately designed to facilitate user comfort and prevent sickness. Our research explores a scene rotation-based method for redirecting a viewer’s gaze and its effectiveness given two parameter adjustments: rotation speed and delay/angle threshold. The research explores the feasibility and effectiveness of the technique and of variations of the parameter values. The research is important because the results will prove useful in the development of future immersive movie or virtual reality experiences. We conducted a controlled user study to determine how users responded to the scene rotation and which parameter values they preferred. Metrics for effective results are derived from user comfort, sickness, and overall preference. From our study, we discovered that users responded favorably to the scene rotation technique, especially for the slow rotation speed. The results of this research will further the understanding of how to effectively develop content for virtual reality systems