A quest for the holy grail: Tactile precision, natural movement and haptic feedback in 3D virtual spaces

Three-dimensional immersive spaces such as those provided by virtual worlds, give unparalleled opportunities for learners to practically engage with simulated authentic settings that may be too expensive or too dangerous to experience in the real world. The potential afforded by these environments is severely constrained by the use of a keyboard and mouse moving in two dimensions. While most technologies have evolved rapidly in the early 21st century, the mouse and keyboard as standard navigation and interaction tools have not. However, talented teams from a range of disciplines are on serious quests to address this limitation. Their Holy Grail is to develop ways to interact with 3D immersive spaces using more natural human movements with haptic feedback. Applications would include the training of surgeons and musical conductors, training elite sports people and even physical rehabilitation. This paper reports on the cutting-edge technology projects that look most likely to provide a solution for this complex problem, including the Wiimote and the Microsoft's Project Natal. © 2009 Helen Farley and Caroline Steel

A Planning Pipeline for Large Multi-Agent Missions

In complex multi-agent applications, human operators are often tasked with planning and managing large heterogeneous teams of humans and autonomous vehicles. Although the use of these autonomous vehicles broadens the scope of meaningful applications, many of their systems remain unintuitive and difficult to master for human operators whose expertise lies in the application domain and not at the platform level. Current research focuses on the development of individual capabilities necessary to plan multi-agent missions of this scope, placing little emphasis on the integration of these components in to a full pipeline. The work presented in this paper presents a complete and user-agnostic planning pipeline for large multiagent missions known as the HOLII GRAILLE. The system takes a holistic approach to mission planning by integrating capabilities in human machine interaction, flight path generation, and validation and verification. Components modules of the pipeline are explored on an individual level, as well as their integration into a whole system. Lastly, implications for future mission planning are discussed

Augmented Reality and Robotics: A Survey and Taxonomy for AR-enhanced Human-Robot Interaction and Robotic Interfaces

This paper contributes to a taxonomy of augmented reality and robotics based on a survey of 460 research papers. Augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) have emerged as a new way to enhance human-robot interaction (HRI) and robotic interfaces (e.g., actuated and shape-changing interfaces). Recently, an increasing number of studies in HCI, HRI, and robotics have demonstrated how AR enables better interactions between people and robots. However, often research remains focused on individual explorations and key design strategies, and research questions are rarely analyzed systematically. In this paper, we synthesize and categorize this research field in the following dimensions: 1) approaches to augmenting reality; 2) characteristics of robots; 3) purposes and benefits; 4) classification of presented information; 5) design components and strategies for visual augmentation; 6) interaction techniques and modalities; 7) application domains; and 8) evaluation strategies. We formulate key challenges and opportunities to guide and inform future research in AR and robotics

Randomly Generated 3D Environments for Serious Games

Abstract — This paper describes a variety of methods that can be used to create realistic, random 3D environments for serious games requiring real-time performance. These include the generation of terrain, vegetation and building structures. An interactive flight simulator has been created as proof of concept. An initial evaluation with two small samples of users (remote and hallway) revealed some usability issues but also showed that overall the flight simulator is enjoyable and appears realistic and believable. Keywords – serious games; 3D terrain modeling; computer graphics; flight simulator. I

The Game FAVR: A Framework for the Analysis of Visual Representation in Video Games

This paper lays out a unified framework of the ergodic animage, the rule-based and interactiondriven part of visual representation in video games. It is the end product of a three-year research project conducted by the INTEGRAE team, and is divided into three parts. Part 1 contextualizes the research on graphics and visuality within game studies, notably through the opposition between fiction and rules and the difficulties in finding common vocabulary to discuss key visual concepts such as perspective and point of view. Part 2 discusses a number of visual traditions through which we frame video game graphics (film, animation, art history, graphical projection and technical drawing), highlighting their relevance and shortcomings in addressing the long history of video games and the very different paradigms of 2D and 3D graphics. Part 3 presents the Game FAVR, a model that allows any game’s visual representation to be described and discussed through a common frame and vocabulary. The framework is presented in an accessible manner and is organized as a toolkit, with sample case studies, templates, and a flowchart for using the FAVR provided as an annex, so that researchers and students can immediately start using it

Cord UIs: Controlling Devices with Augmented Cables

Cord UIs are sensorial augmented cords that allow for simple metaphor-rich interactions to interface with their connected devices. Cords offer a large underexplored space for interactions as well as unique properties and a diverse set of metaphors that make them potentially interesting tangible interfaces. We use cords as input devices and explore different interactions like tying knots, stretching, pinching and kinking to control the flow of data and/or power. We also look at ways to use objects in combination with augmented cords to manipulate data or properties of a device. For instance, placing a clamp on a cable can obstruct the audio signal to the headphones. Using special materials such as piezo copolymer cables and stretchable cords we built five working prototypes to showcase the interactions described in this paper