5,368 research outputs found

    Gesture + Play Exploring Full-Body Navigation for Virtual Environments

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    Navigating Immersive and Interactive VR Environments With Connected 360° Panoramas

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    Emerging research is expanding the idea of using 360-degree spherical panoramas of real-world environments for use in 360 VR experiences beyond video and image viewing. However, most of these experiences are strictly guided, with few opportunities for interaction or exploration. There is a desire to develop experiences with cohesive virtual environments created with 360 VR that allow for choice in navigation, versus scripted experiences with limited interaction. Unlike standard VR with the freedom of synthetic graphics, there are challenges in designing appropriate user interfaces (UIs) for 360 VR navigation within the limitations of fixed assets. To tackle this gap, we designed RealNodes, a software system that presents an interactive and explorable 360 VR environment. We also developed four visual guidance UIs for 360 VR navigation. The results of a pilot study showed that choice of UI had a significant effect on task completion times, showing one of our methods, Arrow, was best. Arrow also exhibited positive but non-significant trends in average measures with preference, user engagement, and simulator-sickness. RealNodes, the UI designs, and the pilot study results contribute preliminary information that inspire future investigation of how to design effective explorable scenarios in 360 VR and visual guidance metaphors for navigation in applications using 360 VR environments

    Head-tracked stereo viewing with two-handed 3D interaction for animated character construction

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    In this paper, we demonstrate a new interactive 3D desktop metaphor based on two-handed 3D direct manipulation registered with head-tracked stereo viewing. In our configuration, a six-degree-of-freedom head-tracker and CrystalEyes shutter glasses are used to produce stereo images that dynamically follow the user head motion. 3D virtual objects can be made to appear at a fixed location in physical space which the user may view from different angles by moving his head. The user interacts with the simulated 3D environment using both hands simultaneously. The left hand, controlling a Spaceball, is used for 3D navigation and object movement, while the right hand, holding a 3D mouse, is used to manipulate through a virtual tool metaphor, the objects appearing in front of the screen because of negative parallax. In this way, both incremental and absolute interactive input techniques are provided by the system. Hand-eye coordination is made possible by registration between virtual and physical space, allowing a variety of complex 3D tasks to be performed more easily and more rapidly than is possible using traditional interactive techniques. The system has been tested using both Polhemus Fastrak and Logitech ultrasonic input devices for tracking the head and 3D mouse.197-206Pubblicat

    Semi-Automatic Method for Creating Virtual Reality Environments

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    Traditsioonilised virtuaalreaalsuskeskkonnad põhinevad kõikide ümbritsevate objektide renderdamisel 3D mudelitest. Selleks tuleb kogu keskkond graafiliselt modelleerida, mis on enamasti pikk ja üksluine tegevus. Hiljuti turule ilmunud 360-kraadi kaamerad võivad olukorda muuta – piltidel põhinev virtuaalreaalsus ei vaja graafilist modelleerimist ja omab seetõttu potentsiaali luua keskkondi palju kiiremini ning pärismaailmale palju sarnasemate tulemustega. Selle lähenemise puuduseks on aga vajadus jäädvustada iga vaadeldava asukoha jaoks eraldi pilt. Seega on lõpptulemuseks suur arv pilte, mis tuleb sildistada viisil, mis võimaldaks piltidevahelist navigeerimist. Lõputöö uurib võimalikke meetodeid selliste virtuaalreaalsuskeskkondade poolautomaatsel teel loomiseks ning kirjeldab kasutajaliidest, mis võimaldab neid kuvada.Traditional virtual reality environments are based on rendering all the surroundings using 3D models of objects. This requires graphically modelling the whole environment, which is usually a long and tedious task. 360-degree cameras that have recently become commercially available might be able to change that situation, as image-based virtual reality requires no graphical modelling and therefore has the promise of being faster with the results resembling the real world more accurately. The downside of this approach is the requirement to create a separate image for each possible location in the scene that is being captured, thus resulting in a large number of images that need to be labelled, so that navigation between images would become possible. This thesis investigates possible methods to create such maps semi-automatically and provides an interface to display the virtual reality environments so created

    A 360 VR and Wi-Fi Tracking Based Autonomous Telepresence Robot for Virtual Tour

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    This study proposes a novel mobile robot teleoperation interface that demonstrates the applicability of a robot-aided remote telepresence system with a virtual reality (VR) device to a virtual tour scenario. To improve realism and provide an intuitive replica of the remote environment for the user interface, the implemented system automatically moves a mobile robot (viewpoint) while displaying a 360-degree live video streamed from the robot to a VR device (Oculus Rift). Upon the user choosing a destination location from a given set of options, the robot generates a route based on a shortest path graph and travels along that the route using a wireless signal tracking method that depends on measuring the direction of arrival (DOA) of radio signals. This paper presents an overview of the system and architecture, and discusses its implementation aspects. Experimental results show that the proposed system is able to move to the destination stably using the signal tracking method, and that at the same time, the user can remotely control the robot through the VR interface

    Crystal ball, virtual gallery C reation system for immersive environments

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    This paper presents a concept and a tool suite for authoring, configuring, organizing and displaying 3D virtual galleries, depicting multimedia content, like art, picture, movie or any other kind of media, which are appropriate for large-scale immersive virtual environments such as the CAVE™. A comparison was established by the authors with standard PC environments while experimenting virtual environments produced by Crystal Ball, showing the superior experience obtained by an installation of the type of CAVE™ that is in operation at Lousal, south of Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Personalising Vibrotactile Displays through Perceptual Sensitivity Adjustment

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    Haptic displays are commonly limited to transmitting a discrete set of tactile motives. In this paper, we explore the transmission of real-valued information through vibrotactile displays. We simulate spatial continuity with three perceptual models commonly used to create phantom sensations: the linear, logarithmic and power model. We show that these generic models lead to limited decoding precision, and propose a method for model personalization adjusting to idiosyncratic and spatial variations in perceptual sensitivity. We evaluate this approach using two haptic display layouts: circular, worn around the wrist and the upper arm, and straight, worn along the forearm. Results of a user study measuring continuous value decoding precision show that users were able to decode continuous values with relatively high accuracy (4.4% mean error), circular layouts performed particularly well, and personalisation through sensitivity adjustment increased decoding precision

    Diseño de un tour virtual para la puesta en valor del patrimonio arquitectónico y urbano de Liria y su entorno

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    [EN] The Information Technology and Communications (ICT) have revolutionized the way to present and promote the heritage sites. These ICT also offer scholars, students and visitors unprecedented access to architectural, historical, geographical, archaeological, iconographical and anthropological data, among other. It is noted also that virtual heritage environments are inherently fascinating and possess essential properties to have a positive effect on supporting heritage conservation and education. This paper is concerned with the potential of these ICT developments for improving the enhancement of the heritage sites of the town of Llíria and its surroundings (Valencia, Spain) by mean of a virtual tour (“Edeta 360º”) based on 360º panorama photos. The “Edeta 360º” virtual tour is an immersive application that places the viewers inside the image, enabling them to significantly enhance position awareness and providing the highest level of functionality for viewing, capturing and analysing virtual data. It can appropriately and effectively be utilised to facilitate intellectual and physical access to public by bringing knowledge, awareness and appreciation about the heritage of Llíria while, at the same time, authenticity is preserved. The undertaking method to create this interactive virtual tour is based on an easy procedure with off-the-shelf equipment and using both freely available software to address the process of photo stitching that combines multiple photographic images with overlapping fields of view to produce a segmented panorama or high-resolution image. Each panorama contains hotspots that enable the users to further explore the surroundings. The virtual tour provides the user the ability to navigate a scene through the rotation and zoom functions. This application results very appealing and has been adopted as a mean for information, dissemination, education and tourism purposes.[ES] Las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TICs) han revolucionado la manera de presentar y promover los lugares patrimoniales. Las TICs ofrecen la posibilidad a académicos, estudiantes y visitantes de acceder, como nunca antes había sucedido, a información arquitectónica, histórica, geográfica, arqueológica, iconográfica y antropológica. Haytambién que resaltar también la fascinación y los efectos positivos que los ambientes virtuales desempeñan en la conservación y la educación.Este artículo se centra en el potencial que tienen las TICspara mejorar la puesta en valor de los elementos patrimonialesde la ciudad de Liria y sus alrededores (Valencia, España) gracias al desarrollo de un tour virtual (“Edeta 360º) realizado a partir de fotografías panorámicas de 360º.El tour virtual “Edeta 360º” es una aplicación inmersiva que sitúa al observador dentro de la imagen, permitiéndole tomar conciencia de la situación de forma significativa y proveyéndole de un alto nivel de funcionalidad para poder ver, capturar y analizar los datos virtuales. Esta aplicación es apropiada y eficiente para facilitar el acceso intelectual y físico al público ya que fomenta el conocimiento, la concienciación y el aprecio por el patrimonio de Liria, a la vez que preserva la autenticidad del lugar. El método utilizado para llevar a cabo este tour virtual interactivo se ha basado en un procedimientosencillo, utilizando equipamiento propio y software libre que combina múltiples imágenes fotográficas superponiendo campos de visión para producir una imagen de alta resolución. Cada panorama contiene puntos de interés que permiten al usuario explorar en detalle los alrededores. El tour virtual brinda al usuario la posibilidad de navegar en la escena a través de las funciones de rotación y zoom. Esta aplicación resulta muy atractiva y ha sido adoptada como medio de información, divulgación, educación y turismo.The authors of this work wish to thank Llíria Town Council and other institutions for supporting the development of Edeta 360º. We are also grateful for the scientific peer reviewing work carried out by Dr. Cristina Portalés.Maícas, JM.; Viñals, MJ. (2017). Design of a virtual tour for the enhancement of Llíria’s architectural and urban heritage and its surroundings. Virtual Archaeology Review. 8(17):42-48. doi:10.4995/var.2017.5845SWORD424881

    Interactive Visual Analytics for Large-scale Particle Simulations

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    Particle based model simulations are widely used in scientific visualization. In cosmology, particles are used to simulate the evolution of dark matter in the universe. Clusters of particles (that have special statistical properties) are called halos. From a visualization point of view, halos are clusters of particles, each having a position, mass and velocity in three dimensional space, and they can be represented as point clouds that contain various structures of geometric interest such as filaments, membranes, satellite of points, clusters, and cluster of clusters. The thesis investigates methods for interacting with large scale data-sets represented as point clouds. The work mostly aims at the interactive visualization of cosmological simulation based on large particle systems. The study consists of three components: a) two human factors experiments into the perceptual factors that make it possible to see features in point clouds; b) the design and implementation of a user interface making it possible to rapidly navigate through and visualize features in the point cloud, c) software development and integration to support visualization
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