Emerging ExG-based NUI Inputs in Extended Realities : A Bottom-up Survey

Incremental and quantitative improvements of two-way interactions with extended realities (XR) are contributing toward a qualitative leap into a state of XR ecosystems being efficient, user-friendly, and widely adopted. However, there are multiple barriers on the way toward the omnipresence of XR; among them are the following: computational and power limitations of portable hardware, social acceptance of novel interaction protocols, and usability and efficiency of interfaces. In this article, we overview and analyse novel natural user interfaces based on sensing electrical bio-signals that can be leveraged to tackle the challenges of XR input interactions. Electroencephalography-based brain-machine interfaces that enable thought-only hands-free interaction, myoelectric input methods that track body gestures employing electromyography, and gaze-tracking electrooculography input interfaces are the examples of electrical bio-signal sensing technologies united under a collective concept of ExG. ExG signal acquisition modalities provide a way to interact with computing systems using natural intuitive actions enriching interactions with XR. This survey will provide a bottom-up overview starting from (i) underlying biological aspects and signal acquisition techniques, (ii) ExG hardware solutions, (iii) ExG-enabled applications, (iv) discussion on social acceptance of such applications and technologies, as well as (v) research challenges, application directions, and open problems; evidencing the benefits that ExG-based Natural User Interfaces inputs can introduceto the areaof XR.Peer reviewe

Emerging ExG-based NUI Inputs in Extended Realities : A Bottom-up Survey

Incremental and quantitative improvements of two-way interactions with extended realities (XR) are contributing toward a qualitative leap into a state of XR ecosystems being efficient, user-friendly, and widely adopted. However, there are multiple barriers on the way toward the omnipresence of XR; among them are the following: computational and power limitations of portable hardware, social acceptance of novel interaction protocols, and usability and efficiency of interfaces. In this article, we overview and analyse novel natural user interfaces based on sensing electrical bio-signals that can be leveraged to tackle the challenges of XR input interactions. Electroencephalography-based brain-machine interfaces that enable thought-only hands-free interaction, myoelectric input methods that track body gestures employing electromyography, and gaze-tracking electrooculography input interfaces are the examples of electrical bio-signal sensing technologies united under a collective concept of ExG. ExG signal acquisition modalities provide a way to interact with computing systems using natural intuitive actions enriching interactions with XR. This survey will provide a bottom-up overview starting from (i) underlying biological aspects and signal acquisition techniques, (ii) ExG hardware solutions, (iii) ExG-enabled applications, (iv) discussion on social acceptance of such applications and technologies, as well as (v) research challenges, application directions, and open problems; evidencing the benefits that ExG-based Natural User Interfaces inputs can introduceto the areaof XR.Peer reviewe

Enhancing interaction in mixed reality

With continuous technological innovation, we observe mixed reality emerging from research labs into the mainstream. The arrival of capable mixed reality devices transforms how we are entertained, consume information, and interact with computing systems, with the most recent being able to present synthesized stimuli to any of the human senses and substantially blur the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds. In order to build expressive and practical mixed reality experiences, designers, developers, and stakeholders need to understand and meet its upcoming challenges. This research contributes a novel taxonomy for categorizing mixed reality experiences and guidelines for designing mixed reality experiences. We present the results of seven studies examining the challenges and opportunities of mixed reality experiences, the impact of modalities and interaction techniques on the user experience, and how to enhance the experiences. We begin with a study determining user attitudes towards mixed reality in domestic and educational environments, followed by six research probes that each investigate an aspect of reality or virtuality. In the first, a levitating steerable projector enables us to investigate how the real world can be enhanced without instrumenting the user. We show that the presentation of in-situ instructions for navigational tasks leads to a significantly higher ability to observe and recall real-world landmarks. With the second probe, we enhance the perception of reality by superimposing information usually not visible to the human eye. In amplifying the human vision, we enable users to perceive thermal radiation visually. Further, we examine the effect of substituting physical components with non-functional tangible proxies or entirely virtual representations. With the third research probe, we explore how to enhance virtuality to enable a user to input text on a physical keyboard while being immersed in the virtual world. Our prototype tracked the user’s hands and keyboard to enable generic text input. Our analysis of text entry performance showed the importance and effect of different hand representations. We then investigate how to touch virtuality by simulating generic haptic feedback for virtual reality and show how tactile feedback through quadcopters can significantly increase the sense of presence. Our final research probe investigates the usability and input space of smartphones within mixed reality environments, pairing the user’s smartphone as an input device with a secondary physical screen. Based on our learnings from these individual research probes, we developed a novel taxonomy for categorizing mixed reality experiences and guidelines for designing mixed reality experiences. The taxonomy is based on the human sensory system and human capabilities of articulation. We showcased its versatility and set our research probes into perspective by organizing them inside the taxonomic space. The design guidelines are divided into user-centered and technology-centered. It is our hope that these will contribute to the bright future of mixed reality systems while emphasizing the new underlining interaction paradigm.Mixed Reality (vermischte Realitäten) gehen aufgrund kontinuierlicher technologischer Innovationen langsam von der reinen Forschung in den Massenmarkt über. Mit der Einführung von leistungsfähigen Mixed-Reality-Geräten verändert sich die Art und Weise, wie wir Unterhaltungsmedien und Informationen konsumieren und wie wir mit Computersystemen interagieren. Verschiedene existierende Geräte sind in der Lage, jeden der menschlichen Sinne mit synthetischen Reizen zu stimulieren. Hierdurch verschwimmt zunehmend die Grenze zwischen der realen und der virtuellen Welt. Um eindrucksstarke und praktische Mixed-Reality-Erfahrungen zu kreieren, müssen Designer und Entwicklerinnen die künftigen Herausforderungen und neuen Möglichkeiten verstehen. In dieser Dissertation präsentieren wir eine neue Taxonomie zur Kategorisierung von Mixed-Reality-Erfahrungen sowie Richtlinien für die Gestaltung von solchen. Wir stellen die Ergebnisse von sieben Studien vor, in denen die Herausforderungen und Chancen von Mixed-Reality-Erfahrungen, die Auswirkungen von Modalitäten und Interaktionstechniken auf die Benutzererfahrung und die Möglichkeiten zur Verbesserung dieser Erfahrungen untersucht werden. Wir beginnen mit einer Studie, in der die Haltung der nutzenden Person gegenüber Mixed Reality in häuslichen und Bildungsumgebungen analysiert wird. In sechs weiteren Fallstudien wird jeweils ein Aspekt der Realität oder Virtualität untersucht. In der ersten Fallstudie wird mithilfe eines schwebenden und steuerbaren Projektors untersucht, wie die Wahrnehmung der realen Welt erweitert werden kann, ohne dabei die Person mit Technologie auszustatten. Wir zeigen, dass die Darstellung von in-situ-Anweisungen für Navigationsaufgaben zu einer deutlich höheren Fähigkeit führt, Sehenswürdigkeiten der realen Welt zu beobachten und wiederzufinden. In der zweiten Fallstudie erweitern wir die Wahrnehmung der Realität durch Überlagerung von Echtzeitinformationen, die für das menschliche Auge normalerweise unsichtbar sind. Durch die Erweiterung des menschlichen Sehvermögens ermöglichen wir den Anwender:innen, Wärmestrahlung visuell wahrzunehmen. Darüber hinaus untersuchen wir, wie sich das Ersetzen von physischen Komponenten durch nicht funktionale, aber greifbare Replikate oder durch die vollständig virtuelle Darstellung auswirkt. In der dritten Fallstudie untersuchen wir, wie virtuelle Realitäten verbessert werden können, damit eine Person, die in der virtuellen Welt verweilt, Text auf einer physischen Tastatur eingeben kann. Unser Versuchsdemonstrator detektiert die Hände und die Tastatur, zeigt diese in der vermischen Realität an und ermöglicht somit die verbesserte Texteingaben. Unsere Analyse der Texteingabequalität zeigte die Wichtigkeit und Wirkung verschiedener Handdarstellungen. Anschließend untersuchen wir, wie man Virtualität berühren kann, indem wir generisches haptisches Feedback für virtuelle Realitäten simulieren. Wir zeigen, wie Quadrokopter taktiles Feedback ermöglichen und dadurch das Präsenzgefühl deutlich steigern können. Unsere letzte Fallstudie untersucht die Benutzerfreundlichkeit und den Eingaberaum von Smartphones in Mixed-Reality-Umgebungen. Hierbei wird das Smartphone der Person als Eingabegerät mit einem sekundären physischen Bildschirm verbunden, um die Ein- und Ausgabemodalitäten zu erweitern. Basierend auf unseren Erkenntnissen aus den einzelnen Fallstudien haben wir eine neuartige Taxonomie zur Kategorisierung von Mixed-Reality-Erfahrungen sowie Richtlinien für die Gestaltung von solchen entwickelt. Die Taxonomie basiert auf dem menschlichen Sinnessystem und den Artikulationsfähigkeiten. Wir stellen die vielseitige Verwendbarkeit vor und setzen unsere Fallstudien in Kontext, indem wir sie innerhalb des taxonomischen Raums einordnen. Die Gestaltungsrichtlinien sind in nutzerzentrierte und technologiezentrierte Richtlinien unterteilt. Es ist unsere Anliegen, dass diese Gestaltungsrichtlinien zu einer erfolgreichen Zukunft von Mixed-Reality-Systemen beitragen und gleichzeitig die neuen Interaktionsparadigmen hervorheben

Developing a mixed reality assistance system based on projection mapping technology for manual operations at assembly workstations.

ABSTRACT Manual tasks play an important role in social sustainable manufacturing enterprises. Commonly, manual operations are used for low volume productions, but are not limited to. Operational models in manufacturing sisters cased of x-to-order paradigms (e.g. assembly-to-order) may require manual operations to speed-up the ramp-up time of new product configuration assemblies. The implications of manual operations in any production line may imply that any manufacturing or assembly process become more susceptible to human errors and therefore translate into delays, defects and/or poor product quality. In this scenario, virtual and augmented realities can offer significant advantages to support the human operator in manual operations. This research work presents the development of a mixed (virtual and augmented) reality assistance system that permits real-time support in manual operations. A review of mixed reality techniques and technologies was conducted, where it was determined to use a projection mapping solution for the proposed assistance system. According to the specific requirements of the demonstration environment, hardware and software components were chosen. The developed mixed reality assistance system was able to guide any user without any prior knowledge through the successful completion of the specific assembly task

Exploring Robot Teleoperation in Virtual Reality

This thesis presents research on VR-based robot teleoperation with a focus on remote environment visualisation in virtual reality, the effects of remote environment reconstruction scale in virtual reality on the human-operator's ability to control the robot and human-operator's visual attention patterns when teleoperating a robot from virtual reality. A VR-based robot teleoperation framework was developed, it is compatible with various robotic systems and cameras, allowing for teleoperation and supervised control with any ROS-compatible robot and visualisation of the environment through any ROS-compatible RGB and RGBD cameras. The framework includes mapping, segmentation, tactile exploration, and non-physically demanding VR interface navigation and controls through any Unity-compatible VR headset and controllers or haptic devices. Point clouds are a common way to visualise remote environments in 3D, but they often have distortions and occlusions, making it difficult to accurately represent objects' textures. This can lead to poor decision-making during teleoperation if objects are inaccurately represented in the VR reconstruction. A study using an end-effector-mounted RGBD camera with OctoMap mapping of the remote environment was conducted to explore the remote environment with fewer point cloud distortions and occlusions while using a relatively small bandwidth. Additionally, a tactile exploration study proposed a novel method for visually presenting information about objects' materials in the VR interface, to improve the operator's decision-making and address the challenges of point cloud visualisation. Two studies have been conducted to understand the effect of virtual world dynamic scaling on teleoperation flow. The first study investigated the use of rate mode control with constant and variable mapping of the operator's joystick position to the speed (rate) of the robot's end-effector, depending on the virtual world scale. The results showed that variable mapping allowed participants to teleoperate the robot more effectively but at the cost of increased perceived workload. The second study compared how operators used a virtual world scale in supervised control, comparing the virtual world scale of participants at the beginning and end of a 3-day experiment. The results showed that as operators got better at the task they as a group used a different virtual world scale, and participants' prior video gaming experience also affected the virtual world scale chosen by operators. Similarly, the human-operator's visual attention study has investigated how their visual attention changes as they become better at teleoperating a robot using the framework. The results revealed the most important objects in the VR reconstructed remote environment as indicated by operators' visual attention patterns as well as their visual priorities shifts as they got better at teleoperating the robot. The study also demonstrated that operators’ prior video gaming experience affects their ability to teleoperate the robot and their visual attention behaviours

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Framework for the Integration of Mobile Device Features in PLM

Currently, companies have covered their business processes with stationary workstations while mobile business applications have limited relevance. Companies can cover their overall business processes more time-efficiently and cost-effectively when they integrate mobile users in workflows using mobile device features. The objective is a framework that can be used to model and control business applications for PLM processes using mobile device features to allow a totally new user experience

Integrating passive ubiquitous surfaces into human-computer interaction

Mobile technologies enable people to interact with computers ubiquitously. This dissertation investigates how ordinary, ubiquitous surfaces can be integrated into human-computer interaction to extend the interaction space beyond the edge of the display. It turns out that acoustic and tactile features generated during an interaction can be combined to identify input events, the user, and the surface. In addition, it is shown that a heterogeneous distribution of different surfaces is particularly suitable for realizing versatile interaction modalities. However, privacy concerns must be considered when selecting sensors, and context can be crucial in determining whether and what interaction to perform.Mobile Technologien ermöglichen den Menschen eine allgegenwärtige Interaktion mit Computern. Diese Dissertation untersucht, wie gewöhnliche, allgegenwärtige Oberflächen in die Mensch-Computer-Interaktion integriert werden können, um den Interaktionsraum über den Rand des Displays hinaus zu erweitern. Es stellt sich heraus, dass akustische und taktile Merkmale, die während einer Interaktion erzeugt werden, kombiniert werden können, um Eingabeereignisse, den Benutzer und die Oberfläche zu identifizieren. Darüber hinaus wird gezeigt, dass eine heterogene Verteilung verschiedener Oberflächen besonders geeignet ist, um vielfältige Interaktionsmodalitäten zu realisieren. Bei der Auswahl der Sensoren müssen jedoch Datenschutzaspekte berücksichtigt werden, und der Kontext kann entscheidend dafür sein, ob und welche Interaktion durchgeführt werden soll