Operators' Accessibility Studies using Virtual Reality

International audienceThe development of fusion plants is more and more challenging. Compared to previous fusion experimental devices, integration constraints, maintenance and safety requirements are key parameters in the ITER project. Components are designed in parallel and we must consider integration, assembly and maintenance issues, which might have a huge impact on the overall design. That also implies to consider the operator's feedback to assess the feasibility of accessibility or maintenance processes. Virtual reality (VR) provides tools to optimize such integration. In 2010, the CEA IRFM decided to upgrade its design tools, by using VR during the life cycle (from design to operation) of a fusion component. The VR platform is intensively used in the design and assembly studies of WEST components. In particular, feasibility of the assembly scenario is assessed by the operators involving in the real assembly work. To study this aspect, the use of static manikins is quite frequent in the industry. However, more complex studies, like the feasibility of assembly and maintenance tasks in complex and very confined environments, require enhanced features such as dynamic and biomechanically realistic virtual humans. We also study the contribution of tactile feedback to improve physical presence and interaction in the virtual environment (VE), which is very important for the validation of a given task's feasibility and the ergonomic evaluation of the posture and gesture of the operator. In particular, we show that adapted behavior in respect to physical elements of the VE can be obtained using a dynamic co-localized representation of the subject's body and a pseudo-haptic tactile feedback. In this paper, we present integration studies involving operators and recent advances in the assessment of maintenance feasibility

Direct Manipulation Tablet Apps for Education: How Should We Understand Them?

The iPad and its competitors have defined a new product category–a mobile, multimedia tablet computer with a touchscreen-enabled, gesture-based interface–that broadly inspires the firm conviction that it will revolutionize education. And while this assumption seems intuitively obvious upon firsthand use, yet what delineates particular educational applications (apps) as especially effective–what makes them tick–is not yet well understood. The unique hand-controlled, direct manipulation features appear, intuitively, to be key to unlocking the platform\u27s effectiveness for learning ideas that can be represented spatially but also may enable learning of higher level concepts. We study existing educational applications and analyze their design and the content of user and reviewer feedback to hypothesize about essential design elements that make educational applications particularly effective on this platform–those that that deliver compelling educational experiences, and we plan experiments to test the hypotheses that surface

Comparing Tangible and Fully Virtual Haptic Systems for HMI Studies in Simulated Driving Situations

The contribution of tangible and intangible feedback is compared for virtual tactile car Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI) design, to measure their performance both in static conditions and while driving. A subjectively calibrated transparent glass provides tangible passive haptics, and visual cues are used to study sensory substitutionbased intangible interactions. The results show that the performance of the subjects was significantly improved in driving conditions as they interacted faster, more accurately and with a higher satisfaction. In addition, our findings highlight that the contribution of tangible systems is significantly lower in driving conditions, raising new questions about the nature of haptic modalities in the function of the context of use. This study provides additional knowledge about the influence of dynamic environments and external tasks on haptic perception

MetaSpace II: Object and full-body tracking for interaction and navigation in social VR

MetaSpace II (MS2) is a social Virtual Reality (VR) system where multiple users can not only see and hear but also interact with each other, grasp and manipulate objects, walk around in space, and get tactile feedback. MS2 allows walking in physical space by tracking each user's skeleton in real-time and allows users to feel by employing passive haptics i.e., when users touch or manipulate an object in the virtual world, they simultaneously also touch or manipulate a corresponding object in the physical world. To enable these elements in VR, MS2 creates a correspondence in spatial layout and object placement by building the virtual world on top of a 3D scan of the real world. Through the association between the real and virtual world, users are able to walk freely while wearing a head-mounted device, avoid obstacles like walls and furniture, and interact with people and objects. Most current virtual reality (VR) environments are designed for a single user experience where interactions with virtual objects are mediated by hand-held input devices or hand gestures. Additionally, users are only shown a representation of their hands in VR floating in front of the camera as seen from a first person perspective. We believe, representing each user as a full-body avatar that is controlled by natural movements of the person in the real world (see Figure 1d), can greatly enhance believability and a user's sense immersion in VR.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures. Video: http://living.media.mit.edu/projects/metaspace-ii

Substitutional reality:using the physical environment to design virtual reality experiences

Experiencing Virtual Reality in domestic and other uncontrolled settings is challenging due to the presence of physical objects and furniture that are not usually defined in the Virtual Environment. To address this challenge, we explore the concept of Substitutional Reality in the context of Virtual Reality: a class of Virtual Environments where every physical object surrounding a user is paired, with some degree of discrepancy, to a virtual counterpart. We present a model of potential substitutions and validate it in two user studies. In the first study we investigated factors that affect participants' suspension of disbelief and ease of use. We systematically altered the virtual representation of a physical object and recorded responses from 20 participants. The second study investigated users' levels of engagement as the physical proxy for a virtual object varied. From the results, we derive a set of guidelines for the design of future Substitutional Reality experiences

Tourists’ Virtual Reality Adoption: An Exploratory Study from Lake District National Park

Virtual reality (VR) transforms the way destinations market their tourism offerings. To fully understand the opportunities of a technology, initial research is required assessing user adoption. However, empirical research and particularly exploratory qualitative research on VR adoption in tourism context is limited. Therefore, this study uses an exploratory interview approach with 35 participants near Lake District National Park, UK. Using thematic analysis, this study explores factors that influence VR adoption as well as the influencing factors on tourists’ behavioural intentions. This study adds to academia by qualitatively exploring the adoption of a scarcely researched technology within the tourism context

una propuesta metodológica en torno al uso de la realidad virtual en personas con discapacidad visual

UIDB/00417/2020 UIDP/00417/2020Este artículo tiene como objetivo reflexionar sobre las posibilidades que ofrece la realidad virtual como elemento mediador entre el objeto artístico y el público con discapacidad visual. A partir de la digitalización fotogramétrica y tratamiento virtual de la pintura O Grupo do Leão (1885) de Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro (pieza clave del realismo portugués) ponemos el foco en la retroalimentación mecano-háptica como recurso de inclusión cognitiva y socioafectiva el ámbito museístico. El propósito es desarrollar e impulsar un prototipo tecnológico (en curso) que haga efectivo el encuentro estético entre el espectador con discapacidad visual y el objeto de museo del modo más auténtico posible. Finalmente, se especifican algunos resultados ya obtenidos durante una estancia de investigación internacional: procesos de captura y generación del modelo tridimensional, limpieza y tratamiento con software 3D especializado, para contribuir a una nueva exploración de los sentidos dentro del campo de la inmersión visual en museos.publishersversionpublishe