A new navigation paradigm for virtual reality: the guided visit through a virtual world

The three main navigation paradigms for virtual worlds, i.e., free navigation, automatic tours, and multiuser navigation show important limitations when dealing with guided visits that involve interactive cooperation among several users in 3D virtual worlds over the Internet. In this paper, we present our research into this issue and some important results. We propose a new navigation paradigm denominated guided visit through a virtual world, where the capacity of a user guiding several remote users through the virtual world is enriched with the capacity to dynamically interchange the role of guiding between the connected users. The user that acts as a guide moves freely through the virtual world, and his/her movements are reproduced by the browsers of the other guided users. We also present the architecture and the system we developed that implements this paradigm, as well as its integration in a working realworld application that demonstrates its use

Increasing the Detail and Realism in Web3D Distributed World

A complex and detailed Web3D world which represented the physical form of an institution is very difficult to be built. To simplify the work, raster images taken from the real structure were heavily utilized. However, this method has resulted in Web3D sites which were low on detail and having minimum level of realism. To overcome this deficiency, it is proposed to maximize the use of polygons. Experiment was done by re-developing the sample world with minimum use of raster images and applying polygons to 92% parts of the site. Site elements were also distributed to three servers to cope with bottleneck problem often occured when using only one server. The result was evaluated in a series of tests to see its viewing capabilities when displayed inside the web browser against various conditions, and it also evaluated in an acceptance test carried out by site users. The majority of testers felt immensely familiar with the details shown by the model as they were able to grab a more close-to-realistic experience like a real-world walk around inside the actual building complex. Problems that often occur whe using only one server ca also be reduced by using distributed world method

The Layered Virtual Reality Commerce System (LaVRCS): An Approach to Creating Viable VRCommerce Sites

In this paper, the authors argue that Virtual Reality (VR) does have a place in an e-commerce environment. However, VR is not yet ready to supplant standard e-commerce Web interfaces with a completely immersive VR environment. Rather, Virtual Reality in e-commerce (VRCommerce) must rely on a mixed platform presentation to account for various levels of usability, user trust, and technical feasibility. The authors propose that e-commerce sites that want to implement VRCommerce offer at least three layers of interaction to users: a standard Web interface, embedded VR objects in a Web interface, and semi-immersive VR within an existing Web interface. This system is termed the Layered Virtual Reality Commerce System, or LaVRCS

The design-by-adaptation approach to universal access: learning from videogame technology

This paper proposes an alternative approach to the design of universally accessible interfaces to that provided by formal design frameworks applied ab initio to the development of new software. This approach, design-byadaptation, involves the transfer of interface technology and/or design principles from one application domain to another, in situations where the recipient domain is similar to the host domain in terms of modelled systems, tasks and users. Using the example of interaction in 3D virtual environments, the paper explores how principles underlying the design of videogame interfaces may be applied to a broad family of visualization and analysis software which handles geographical data (virtual geographic environments, or VGEs). One of the motivations behind the current study is that VGE technology lags some way behind videogame technology in the modelling of 3D environments, and has a less-developed track record in providing the variety of interaction methods needed to undertake varied tasks in 3D virtual worlds by users with varied levels of experience. The current analysis extracted a set of interaction principles from videogames which were used to devise a set of 3D task interfaces that have been implemented in a prototype VGE for formal evaluation

Adaptivity of 3D web content in web-based virtual museums : a quality of service and quality of experience perspective

The 3D Web emerged as an agglomeration of technologies that brought the third dimension to the World Wide Web. Its forms spanned from being systems with limited 3D capabilities to complete and complex Web-Based Virtual Worlds. The advent of the 3D Web provided great opportunities to museums by giving them an innovative medium to disseminate collections' information and associated interpretations in the form of digital artefacts, and virtual reconstructions thus leading to a new revolutionary way in cultural heritage curation, preservation and dissemination thereby reaching a wider audience. This audience consumes 3D Web material on a myriad of devices (mobile devices, tablets and personal computers) and network regimes (WiFi, 4G, 3G, etc.). Choreographing and presenting 3D Web components across all these heterogeneous platforms and network regimes present a significant challenge yet to overcome. The challenge is to achieve a good user Quality of Experience (QoE) across all these platforms. This means that different levels of fidelity of media may be appropriate. Therefore, servers hosting those media types need to adapt to the capabilities of a wide range of networks and devices. To achieve this, the research contributes the design and implementation of Hannibal, an adaptive QoS & QoE-aware engine that allows Web-Based Virtual Museums to deliver the best possible user experience across those platforms. In order to ensure effective adaptivity of 3D content, this research furthers the understanding of the 3D web in terms of Quality of Service (QoS) through empirical investigations studying how 3D Web components perform and what are their bottlenecks and in terms of QoE studying the subjective perception of fidelity of 3D Digital Heritage artefacts. Results of these experiments lead to the design and implementation of Hannibal

The design-by-adaptation approach to universal access: learning from videogame technology

This paper proposes an alternative approach to the design of universally accessible interfaces to that provided by formal design frameworks applied ab initio to the development of new software. This approach, design-byadaptation, involves the transfer of interface technology and/or design principles from one application domain to another, in situations where the recipient domain is similar to the host domain in terms of modelled systems, tasks and users. Using the example of interaction in 3D virtual environments, the paper explores how principles underlying the design of videogame interfaces may be applied to a broad family of visualization and analysis software which handles geographical data (virtual geographic environments, or VGEs). One of the motivations behind the current study is that VGE technology lags some way behind videogame technology in the modelling of 3D environments, and has a less-developed track record in providing the variety of interaction methods needed to undertake varied tasks in 3D virtual worlds by users with varied levels of experience. The current analysis extracted a set of interaction principles from videogames which were used to devise a set of 3D task interfaces that have been implemented in a prototype VGE for formal evaluation

Effects of Visual Aids with Axis Information on Navigation and User Experience in Virtual Reality

The widespread use of Virtual Reality (VR) has triggered many interesting practices in the field of visualization. This work presents one such visualization, Microvascular Network of a Mouse Brain in VR. Any VR application requires a certain amount of navigation irrespective of the visualization. This research has implemented multiple visual aids for navigation in non-human scale visualization of Microvascular Data. An experiment is presented to test how users experience and interpret these visual aids. The visual aids were designed to provide users with varying levels of information in terms of axis and location. Feedback from users indicates the effect of the visual aids on the navigation as well as their VR experience

Effects of Visual Aids with Axis Information on Navigation and User Experience in Virtual Reality

The widespread use of Virtual Reality (VR) has triggered many interesting practices in the field of visualization. This work presents one such visualization, Microvascular Network of a Mouse Brain in VR. Any VR application requires a certain amount of navigation irrespective of the visualization. This research has implemented multiple visual aids for navigation in non-human scale visualization of Microvascular Data. An experiment is presented to test how users experience and interpret these visual aids. The visual aids were designed to provide users with varying levels of information in terms of axis and location. Feedback from users indicates the effect of the visual aids on the navigation as well as their VR experience