4,019 research outputs found
Constructing a gazebo: supporting teamwork in a tightly coupled, distributed task in virtual reality
Many tasks require teamwork. Team members may work concurrently, but there must be some occasions of coming together. Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) allow distributed teams to come together across distance to share a task. Studies of CVE systems have tended to focus on the sense of presence or copresence with other people. They have avoided studying close interaction between us-ers, such as the shared manipulation of objects, because CVEs suffer from inherent network delays and often have cumbersome user interfaces. Little is known about the ef-fectiveness of collaboration in tasks requiring various forms of object sharing and, in particular, the concurrent manipu-lation of objects.
This paper investigates the effectiveness of supporting teamwork among a geographically distributed group in a task that requires the shared manipulation of objects. To complete the task, users must share objects through con-current manipulation of both the same and distinct at-tributes. The effectiveness of teamwork is measured in terms of time taken to achieve each step, as well as the impression of users. The effect of interface is examined by comparing various combinations of walk-in cubic immersive projection technology (IPT) displays and desktop devices
Analysis domain model for shared virtual environments
The field of shared virtual environments, which also
encompasses online games and social 3D environments, has a
system landscape consisting of multiple solutions that share great functional overlap. However, there is little system interoperability between the different solutions. A shared virtual environment has an associated problem domain that is highly complex raising difficult challenges to the development process, starting with the architectural design of the underlying system. This paper has two main contributions. The first contribution is a broad domain analysis of shared virtual environments, which enables developers to have a better understanding of the whole rather than the part(s). The second contribution is a reference domain model for discussing and describing solutions - the Analysis Domain Model
Immersive interconnected virtual and augmented reality : a 5G and IoT perspective
Despite remarkable advances, current augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications are a largely individual and local experience. Interconnected AR/VR, where participants can virtually interact across vast distances, remains a distant dream. The great barrier that stands between current technology and such applications is the stringent end-to-end latency requirement, which should not exceed 20 ms in order to avoid motion sickness and other discomforts. Bringing AR/VR to the next level to enable immersive interconnected AR/VR will require significant advances towards 5G ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) and a Tactile Internet of Things (IoT). In this article, we articulate the technical challenges to enable a future AR/VR end-to-end architecture, that combines 5G URLLC and Tactile IoT technology to support this next generation of interconnected AR/VR applications. Through the use of IoT sensors and actuators, AR/VR applications will be aware of the environmental and user context, supporting human-centric adaptations of the application logic, and lifelike interactions with the virtual environment. We present potential use cases and the required technological building blocks. For each of them, we delve into the current state of the art and challenges that need to be addressed before the dream of remote AR/VR interaction can become reality
From presence to consciousness through virtual reality
Immersive virtual environments can break the deep, everyday connection between where our senses tell us we are and where we are actually located and whom we are with. The concept of 'presence' refers to the phenomenon of behaving and feeling as if we are in the virtual world created by computer displays. In this article, we argue that presence is worthy of study by neuroscientists, and that it might aid the study of perception and consciousness
Distributed Implementation of eXtended Reality Technologies over 5G Networks
MenciĂłn Internacional en el tĂtulo de doctorThe revolution of Extended Reality (XR) has already started and is rapidly
expanding as technology advances. Announcements such as Meta’s Metaverse have
boosted the general interest in XR technologies, producing novel use cases. With
the advent of the fifth generation of cellular networks (5G), XR technologies are
expected to improve significantly by offloading heavy computational processes from
the XR Head Mounted Display (HMD) to an edge server. XR offloading can rapidly
boost XR technologies by considerably reducing the burden on the XR hardware,
while improving the overall user experience by enabling smoother graphics and more
realistic interactions. Overall, the combination of XR and 5G has the potential to
revolutionize the way we interact with technology and experience the world around
us.
However, XR offloading is a complex task that requires state-of-the-art tools
and solutions, as well as an advanced wireless network that can meet the demanding
throughput, latency, and reliability requirements of XR. The definition of these
requirements strongly depends on the use case and particular XR offloading implementations.
Therefore, it is crucial to perform a thorough Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) analysis to ensure a successful design of any XR offloading solution.
Additionally, distributed XR implementations can be intrincated systems with
multiple processes running on different devices or virtual instances. All these agents
must be well-handled and synchronized to achieve XR real-time requirements and
ensure the expected user experience, guaranteeing a low processing overhead. XR
offloading requires a carefully designed architecture which complies with the required
KPIs while efficiently synchronizing and handling multiple heterogeneous devices.
Offloading XR has become an essential use case for 5G and beyond 5G technologies.
However, testing distributed XR implementations requires access to advanced
5G deployments that are often unavailable to most XR application developers. Conversely,
the development of 5G technologies requires constant feedback from potential
applications and use cases. Unfortunately, most 5G providers, engineers, or
researchers lack access to cutting-edge XR hardware or applications, which can hinder
the fast implementation and improvement of 5G’s most advanced features. Both
technology fields require ongoing input and continuous development from each other
to fully realize their potential. As a result, XR and 5G researchers and developers
must have access to the necessary tools and knowledge to ensure the rapid and
satisfactory development of both technology fields.
In this thesis, we focus on these challenges providing knowledge, tools and solutiond towards the implementation of advanced offloading technologies, opening the
door to more immersive, comfortable and accessible XR technologies. Our contributions
to the field of XR offloading include a detailed study and description of the
necessary network throughput and latency KPIs for XR offloading, an architecture
for low latency XR offloading and our full end to end XR offloading implementation
ready for a commercial XR HMD. Besides, we also present a set of tools which can
facilitate the joint development of 5G networks and XR offloading technologies: our
5G RAN real-time emulator and a multi-scenario XR IP traffic dataset.
Firstly, in this thesis, we thoroughly examine and explain the KPIs that are
required to achieve the expected Quality of Experience (QoE) and enhanced immersiveness
in XR offloading solutions. Our analysis focuses on individual XR
algorithms, rather than potential use cases. Additionally, we provide an initial
description of feasible 5G deployments that could fulfill some of the proposed KPIs
for different offloading scenarios.
We also present our low latency muti-modal XR offloading architecture, which
has already been tested on a commercial XR device and advanced 5G deployments,
such as millimeter-wave (mmW) technologies. Besides, we describe our full endto-
end complex XR offloading system which relies on our offloading architecture to
provide low latency communication between a commercial XR device and a server
running a Machine Learning (ML) algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, this is
one of the first successful XR offloading implementations for complex ML algorithms
in a commercial device.
With the goal of providing XR developers and researchers access to complex
5G deployments and accelerating the development of future XR technologies, we
present FikoRE, our 5G RAN real-time emulator. FikoRE has been specifically
designed not only to model the network with sufficient accuracy but also to support
the emulation of a massive number of users and actual IP throughput. As FikoRE
can handle actual IP traffic above 1 Gbps, it can directly be used to test distributed
XR solutions. As we describe in the thesis, its emulation capabilities make FikoRE
a potential candidate to become a reference testbed for distributed XR developers
and researchers.
Finally, we used our XR offloading tools to generate an XR IP traffic dataset
which can accelerate the development of 5G technologies by providing a straightforward
manner for testing novel 5G solutions using realistic XR data. This dataset is
generated for two relevant XR offloading scenarios: split rendering, in which the rendering
step is moved to an edge server, and heavy ML algorithm offloading. Besides,
we derive the corresponding IP traffic models from the captured data, which can be
used to generate realistic XR IP traffic. We also present the validation experiments
performed on the derived models and their results.This work has received funding from the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie SkĹ‚odowska-Curie ETN TeamUp5G, grant agreement No. 813391.Programa de Doctorado en Multimedia y Comunicaciones por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid y la Universidad Rey Juan CarlosPresidente: Narciso GarcĂa Santos.- Secretario: Fernando DĂaz de MarĂa.- Vocal: Aryan Kaushi
Collaboration in Immersive Environments: Challenges and Solutions
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) tools have been applied in
all engineering fields in order to avoid the use of physical prototypes, to
train in high-risk situations, and to interpret real or simulated results. In
order to complete a shared task or assign tasks to the agents in such immersive
environments, collaboration or Shared Cooperative Activities are a necessity.
Collaboration in immersive environments is an emerging field of research that
aims to study and enhance the ways in which people interact and work together
in Virtual and Augmented Reality settings. Collaboration in immersive
environments is a complex process that involves different factors such as
communication, coordination, and social presence. This paper provides an
overview of the current state of research on collaboration in immersive
environments. It discusses the different types of immersive environments,
including VR and AR, and the different forms of collaboration that can occur in
these environments. The paper also highlights the challenges and limitations of
collaboration in immersive environments, such as the lack of physical cues,
cost and usability and the need for further research in this area. Overall,
collaboration in immersive environments is a promising field with a wide range
of potential applications, from education to industry, and it can benefit both
individuals and groups by enhancing their ability to work together effectively
Media Presence and Inner Presence: The Sense of Presence in Virtual Reality Technologies
Abstract. Presence is widely accepted as the key concept to be considered in any research involving human interaction with Virtual Reality (VR). Since its original description, the concept of presence has developed over the past decade to be considered by many researchers as the essence of any experience in a virtual environment. The VR generating systems comprise two main parts: a technological component and a psychological experience. The different relevance given to them produced two different but coexisting visions of presence: the rationalist and the psychological/ecological points of view. The rationalist point of view considers a VR system as a collection of specific machines with the necessity of the inclusion \ud
of the concept of presence. The researchers agreeing with this approach describe the sense of presence as a function of the experience of a given medium (Media Presence). The main result of this approach is the definition of presence as the perceptual illusion of non-mediation produced by means of the disappearance of the medium from the conscious attention of the subject. At the other extreme, there \ud
is the psychological or ecological perspective (Inner Presence). Specifically, this perspective considers presence as a neuropsychological phenomenon, evolved from the interplay of our biological and cultural inheritance, whose goal is the control of the human activity. \ud
Given its key role and the rate at which new approaches to understanding and examining presence are appearing, this chapter draws together current research on presence to provide an up to date overview of the most widely accepted approaches to its understanding and measurement
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