146 research outputs found
Enhanced Virtuality: Increasing the Usability and Productivity of Virtual Environments
Mit stetig steigender Bildschirmauflösung, genauerem Tracking und fallenden Preisen stehen Virtual Reality (VR) Systeme kurz davor sich erfolgreich am Markt zu etablieren. Verschiedene Werkzeuge helfen Entwicklern bei der Erstellung komplexer Interaktionen mit mehreren Benutzern innerhalb adaptiver virtueller Umgebungen. Allerdings entstehen mit der Verbreitung der VR-Systeme auch zusĂ€tzliche Herausforderungen: Diverse EingabegerĂ€te mit ungewohnten Formen und Tastenlayouts verhindern eine intuitive Interaktion. DarĂŒber hinaus zwingt der eingeschrĂ€nkte Funktionsumfang bestehender Software die Nutzer dazu, auf herkömmliche PC- oder Touch-basierte Systeme zurĂŒckzugreifen. AuĂerdem birgt die Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Anwendern am gleichen Standort Herausforderungen hinsichtlich der Kalibrierung unterschiedlicher Trackingsysteme und der Kollisionsvermeidung. Beim entfernten Zusammenarbeiten wird die Interaktion durch Latenzzeiten und Verbindungsverluste zusĂ€tzlich beeinflusst. SchlieĂlich haben die Benutzer unterschiedliche Anforderungen an die Visualisierung von Inhalten, z.B. GröĂe, Ausrichtung, Farbe oder Kontrast, innerhalb der virtuellen Welten. Eine strikte Nachbildung von realen Umgebungen in VR verschenkt Potential und wird es nicht ermöglichen, die individuellen BedĂŒrfnisse der Benutzer zu berĂŒcksichtigen.
Um diese Probleme anzugehen, werden in der vorliegenden Arbeit Lösungen in den Bereichen Eingabe, Zusammenarbeit und Erweiterung von virtuellen Welten und Benutzern vorgestellt, die darauf abzielen, die Benutzerfreundlichkeit und ProduktivitĂ€t von VR zu erhöhen. ZunĂ€chst werden PC-basierte Hardware und Software in die virtuelle Welt ĂŒbertragen, um die Vertrautheit und den Funktionsumfang bestehender Anwendungen in VR zu erhalten. Virtuelle Stellvertreter von physischen GerĂ€ten, z.B. Tastatur und Tablet, und ein VR-Modus fĂŒr Anwendungen ermöglichen es dem Benutzer reale FĂ€higkeiten in die virtuelle Welt zu ĂŒbertragen. Des Weiteren wird ein Algorithmus vorgestellt, der die Kalibrierung mehrerer ko-lokaler VR-GerĂ€te mit hoher Genauigkeit und geringen Hardwareanforderungen und geringem Aufwand ermöglicht. Da VR-Headsets die reale Umgebung der Benutzer ausblenden, wird die Relevanz einer Ganzkörper-Avatar-Visualisierung fĂŒr die Kollisionsvermeidung und das entfernte Zusammenarbeiten nachgewiesen. DarĂŒber hinaus werden personalisierte rĂ€umliche oder zeitliche Modifikationen vorgestellt, die es erlauben, die Benutzerfreundlichkeit, Arbeitsleistung und soziale PrĂ€senz von Benutzern zu erhöhen. Diskrepanzen zwischen den virtuellen Welten, die durch persönliche Anpassungen entstehen, werden durch Methoden der Avatar-Umlenkung (engl. redirection) kompensiert. AbschlieĂend werden einige der Methoden und Erkenntnisse in eine beispielhafte Anwendung integriert, um deren praktische Anwendbarkeit zu verdeutlichen.
Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt, dass virtuelle Umgebungen auf realen FĂ€higkeiten und Erfahrungen aufbauen können, um eine vertraute und einfache Interaktion und Zusammenarbeit von Benutzern zu gewĂ€hrleisten. DarĂŒber hinaus ermöglichen individuelle Erweiterungen des virtuellen Inhalts und der Avatare EinschrĂ€nkungen der realen Welt zu ĂŒberwinden und das Erlebnis von VR-Umgebungen zu steigern
Tangible User Interfaces and Metaphors for 3D Navigation
The most fundamental and common 3D interaction is the control of the virtual camera or viewpoint, commonly referred to as navigation. The navigational requirements of controlling multiple degrees of freedom and maintaining adequate spatial awareness are big challenges to many users. Many tasks additionally demand large portions of cognitive effort from the user for non-navigational aspects. Therefore, new solutions that are simple and naturally efficient are in high demand. These major challenges to 3D navigation have yet to be satisfactorily addressed, and as a result, there has yet to be a declaration of a suitable unified 3D interaction technique or metaphor.
We present a new domain and task independent 3D navigation metaphor, Navigational Puppetry, which we intend to be a candidate for the navigational portion of a unifying 3D interaction metaphor. The major components of the metaphor - the puppet, puppeteer, stage, and puppet-view - enable a new meta-navigational perspective and provide the user with a graspable navigational avatar, within a multiple-view perspective, that allows them to âreachâ within the virtual world and manipulate the viewpoint directly. We position this metaphor as a distinct articulation of the front wave of a puppetry related trend in recent 3D navigation solutions. The metaphor was implemented into a tangible user interface prototype called the Navi-Teer. Two usability studies and a unique spatial audio experiment were completed to observe and demonstrate, respectively, the metaphorâs benefits of tactile intimacy, spatial orientation, easy capture of complex input and support for collaboration
Virtual Reality
At present, the virtual reality has impact on information organization and management and even changes design principle of information systems, which will make it adapt to application requirements. The book aims to provide a broader perspective of virtual reality on development and application. First part of the book is named as "virtual reality visualization and vision" and includes new developments in virtual reality visualization of 3D scenarios, virtual reality and vision, high fidelity immersive virtual reality included tracking, rendering and display subsystems. The second part named as "virtual reality in robot technology" brings forth applications of virtual reality in remote rehabilitation robot-based rehabilitation evaluation method and multi-legged robot adaptive walking in unstructured terrains. The third part, named as "industrial and construction applications" is about the product design, space industry, building information modeling, construction and maintenance by virtual reality, and so on. And the last part, which is named as "culture and life of human" describes applications of culture life and multimedia-technology
Spatial Interaction for Immersive Mixed-Reality Visualizations
Growing amounts of data, both in personal and professional settings, have caused an increased interest in data visualization and visual analytics.
Especially for inherently three-dimensional data, immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality and advanced, natural interaction techniques have been shown to facilitate data analysis.
Furthermore, in such use cases, the physical environment often plays an important role, both by directly influencing the data and by serving as context for the analysis.
Therefore, there has been a trend to bring data visualization into new, immersive environments and to make use of the physical surroundings, leading to a surge in mixed-reality visualization research.
One of the resulting challenges, however, is the design of user interaction for these often complex systems.
In my thesis, I address this challenge by investigating interaction for immersive mixed-reality visualizations regarding three core research questions:
1) What are promising types of immersive mixed-reality visualizations, and how can advanced interaction concepts be applied to them?
2) How does spatial interaction benefit these visualizations and how should such interactions be designed?
3) How can spatial interaction in these immersive environments be analyzed and evaluated?
To address the first question, I examine how various visualizations such as 3D node-link diagrams and volume visualizations can be adapted for immersive mixed-reality settings and how they stand to benefit from advanced interaction concepts.
For the second question, I study how spatial interaction in particular can help to explore data in mixed reality.
There, I look into spatial device interaction in comparison to touch input, the use of additional mobile devices as input controllers, and the potential of transparent interaction panels.
Finally, to address the third question, I present my research on how user interaction in immersive mixed-reality environments can be analyzed directly in the original, real-world locations, and how this can provide new insights.
Overall, with my research, I contribute interaction and visualization concepts, software prototypes, and findings from several user studies on how spatial interaction techniques can support the exploration of immersive mixed-reality visualizations.Zunehmende Datenmengen, sowohl im privaten als auch im beruflichen Umfeld, fĂŒhren zu einem zunehmenden Interesse an Datenvisualisierung und visueller Analyse.
Insbesondere bei inhĂ€rent dreidimensionalen Daten haben sich immersive Technologien wie Virtual und Augmented Reality sowie moderne, natĂŒrliche Interaktionstechniken als hilfreich fĂŒr die Datenanalyse erwiesen.
DarĂŒber hinaus spielt in solchen AnwendungsfĂ€llen die physische Umgebung oft eine wichtige Rolle, da sie sowohl die Daten direkt beeinflusst als auch als Kontext fĂŒr die Analyse dient.
Daher gibt es einen Trend, die Datenvisualisierung in neue, immersive Umgebungen zu bringen und die physische Umgebung zu nutzen, was zu einem Anstieg der Forschung im Bereich Mixed-Reality-Visualisierung gefĂŒhrt hat.
Eine der daraus resultierenden Herausforderungen ist jedoch die Gestaltung der Benutzerinteraktion fĂŒr diese oft komplexen Systeme.
In meiner Dissertation beschĂ€ftige ich mich mit dieser Herausforderung, indem ich die Interaktion fĂŒr immersive Mixed-Reality-Visualisierungen im Hinblick auf drei zentrale Forschungsfragen untersuche:
1) Was sind vielversprechende Arten von immersiven Mixed-Reality-Visualisierungen, und wie können fortschrittliche Interaktionskonzepte auf sie angewendet werden?
2) Wie profitieren diese Visualisierungen von rÀumlicher Interaktion und wie sollten solche Interaktionen gestaltet werden?
3) Wie kann rÀumliche Interaktion in diesen immersiven Umgebungen analysiert und ausgewertet werden?
Um die erste Frage zu beantworten, untersuche ich, wie verschiedene Visualisierungen wie 3D-Node-Link-Diagramme oder Volumenvisualisierungen fĂŒr immersive Mixed-Reality-Umgebungen angepasst werden können und wie sie von fortgeschrittenen Interaktionskonzepten profitieren.
FĂŒr die zweite Frage untersuche ich, wie insbesondere die rĂ€umliche Interaktion bei der Exploration von Daten in Mixed Reality helfen kann.
Dabei betrachte ich die Interaktion mit rÀumlichen GerÀten im Vergleich zur Touch-Eingabe, die Verwendung zusÀtzlicher mobiler GerÀte als Controller und das Potenzial transparenter Interaktionspanels.
Um die dritte Frage zu beantworten, stelle ich schlieĂlich meine Forschung darĂŒber vor, wie Benutzerinteraktion in immersiver Mixed-Reality direkt in der realen Umgebung analysiert werden kann und wie dies neue Erkenntnisse liefern kann.
Insgesamt trage ich mit meiner Forschung durch Interaktions- und Visualisierungskonzepte, Software-Prototypen und Ergebnisse aus mehreren Nutzerstudien zu der Frage bei, wie rĂ€umliche Interaktionstechniken die Erkundung von immersiven Mixed-Reality-Visualisierungen unterstĂŒtzen können
Merging the Real and the Virtual: An Exploration of Interaction Methods to Blend Realities
We investigate, build, and design interaction methods to merge the real with the virtual. An initial investigation looks at spatial augmented reality (SAR) and its effects on pointing with a real mobile phone. A study reveals a set of trade-offs between the raycast, viewport, and direct pointing techniques. To further investigate the manipulation of virtual content within a SAR environment, we design an interaction technique that utilizes the distance that a user holds mobile phone away from their body. Our technique enables pushing virtual content from a mobile phone to an external SAR environment, interact with that content, rotate-scale-translate it, and pull the content back into the mobile phone. This is all done in a way that ensures seamless transitions between the real environment of the mobile phone and the virtual SAR environment. To investigate the issues that occur when the physical environment is hidden by a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) HMD, we design and investigate a system that merges a realtime 3D reconstruction of the real world with a virtual environment. This allows users to freely move, manipulate, observe, and communicate with people and objects situated in their physical reality without losing their sense of immersion or presence inside a virtual world. A study with VR users demonstrates the affordances provided by the system and how it can be used to enhance current VR experiences. We then move to AR, to investigate the limitations of optical see-through HMDs and the problem of communicating the internal state of the virtual world with unaugmented users. To address these issues and enable new ways to visualize, manipulate, and share virtual content, we propose a system that combines a wearable SAR projector. Demonstrations showcase ways to utilize the projected and head-mounted displays together, such as expanding field of view, distributing content across depth surfaces, and enabling bystander collaboration. We then turn to videogames to investigate how spectatorship of these virtual environments can be enhanced through expanded video rendering techniques. We extract and combine additional data to form a cumulative 3D representation of the live game environment for spectators, which enables each spectator to individually control a personal view into the stream while in VR. A study shows that users prefer spectating in VR when compared with a comparable desktop rendering
XR, music and neurodiversity: design and application of new mixed reality technologies that facilitate musical intervention for children with autism spectrum conditions
This thesis, accompanied by the practice outputs,investigates sensory integration, social interaction and creativity through a newly developed VR-musical interface designed exclusively for children with a high-functioning autism spectrum condition (ASC).The results aim to contribute to the limited expanse of literature and research surrounding Virtual Reality (VR) musical interventions and Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) designed to support individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions.
The author has developed bespoke hardware, software and a new methodology to conduct field investigations. These outputs include a Virtual Immersive Musical Reality Intervention (ViMRI) protocol, a Supplemental Personalised, immersive Musical Experience(SPiME) programme, the Assisted Real-time Three-dimensional Immersive Musical Intervention Systemâ (ARTIMIS) and a bespoke (and fully configurable) âCreative immersive interactive Musical Softwareâ application (CiiMS).
The outputs are each implemented within a series of institutional investigations of 18 autistic child participants. Four groups are evaluated using newly developed virtual assessment and scoring mechanisms devised exclusively from long-established rating scales. Key quantitative indicators from the datasets demonstrate consistent findings and significant improvements for individual preferences (likes), fear reduction efficacy, and social interaction.
Six individual case studies present positive qualitative results demonstrating improved decision-making and sensorimotor processing. The preliminary research trials further indicate that using this virtual-reality music technology system and newly developed protocols produces notable improvements for participants with an ASC. More significantly, there is evidence that the supplemental technology facilitates a reduction in psychological anxiety and improvements in dexterity. The virtual music composition and improvisation system presented here require further extensive testing in different spheres for proof of concept
Literacy for digital futures : Mind, body, text
The unprecedented rate of global, technological, and societal change calls for a radical, new understanding of literacy. This book offers a nuanced framework for making sense of literacy by addressing knowledge as contextualised, embodied, multimodal, and digitally mediated.
In todayâs world of technological breakthroughs, social shifts, and rapid changes to the educational landscape, literacy can no longer be understood through established curriculum and static text structures. To prepare teachers, scholars, and researchers for the digital future, the book is organised around three themes â Mind and Materiality; Body and Senses; and Texts and Digital Semiotics â to shape readersâ understanding of literacy. Opening up new interdisciplinary themes, Mills, Unsworth, and Scholes confront emerging issues for next-generation digital literacy practices. The volume helps new and established researchers rethink dynamic changes in the materiality of texts and their implications for the mind and body, and features recommendations for educational and professional practice
Isometric versus Elastic Surfboard Interfaces for 3D Travel in Virtual Reality
Three dimensional travel in immersive virtual environments (IVE) has been a difficult problem since the beginning of virtual reality (VR), basically due to the difficulty of designing an intuitive, efficient, and precise three degrees of freedom (DOF) interface which can map the user\u27s finite local movements in the real world to a potentially infinite virtual space. Inspired by the Silver Surfer Sci-Fi movie and the popularity of the Nintendo Wii Balance Board interface, a surfboard interface appears to be a good solution to this problem. Based on this idea, I designed and developed a VR Silver Surfer system which allows a user to surf in the sky of an infinite virtual environment, using either an isometric balance board or an elastic tilt board. Although the balance board is the industrial standard of board interface, the tilt board seems to provide the user more intuitive, realistic and enjoyable experiences, without any sacrifice of efficiency or precision.
To validate this hypothesis we designed and conducted a user study that compared the two board interfaces in three independent experiments that break the travel procedure into separate DOFs. The results showed that in all experiments, the tilt board was not only as efficient and precise as the balance board, but also more intuitive, realistic and fun. In addition, despite the popularity of the balance board in the game industry, most subjects in the study preferred the tilt board in general, and in fact complained that the balance board could have been the cause of possible motion sickness
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3D (embodied) projection mapping and sensing bodies : a study in interactive dance performance
This dissertation identifies the synergies between physical and virtual environments when designing for immersive experiences in interactive dance performances. The integration of virtual information in physical space is transforming our interactions and experiences with the world. By using the body and creative expression as the interface between real and virtual worlds, dance performance creates a privileged framework to research and design interactive mixed reality environments and immersive augmented architectures. The research is primarily situated in the fields of visual art and interaction design. It combines performance with transdisciplinary fields and intertwines practice with theory. The theoretical and conceptual implications involved in designing and experiencing immersive hybrid environments are analyzed using the realityâvirtuality continuum. These theories helped frame the ways augmented reality architectures are achieved through the integration of dance performance with digital software and reception displays. They also helped identify the main artistic affordances and restrictions in the design of augmented reality and augmented virtuality environments for live performance. These pervasive media architectures were materialized in three field experiments, the live dance performances. Each performance was created in three different stages of conception, design and production. The first stage was to âdigitizeâ the performerâs movement and brain activity to the virtual environment and our system. This was accomplished through the use of depth sensor cameras, 3D motion capture, and brain computer interfaces. The second stage was the creation of the computational architecture and software that aggregates the connections and mapping between the physical body and the spatial dynamics of the virtual environment. This process created real-time interactions between the performerâs behavior and motion and the real-time generative computer 3D graphics. Finally, the third stage consisted of the output modality: 3D projector based augmentation techniques were adopted in order to overlay the virtual environment onto physical space. This thesis proposes and lays out theoretical, technical, and artistic frameworks between 3D digital environments and moving bodies in dance performance. By sensing the body and the brain with the 3D virtual environments, new layers of augmentation and interactions are established, and ultimately this generates mixed reality environments for embodied improvisational self-expression.Radio-Television-Fil
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