72 research outputs found
Rapid Prototyping for Virtual Environments
Development of Virtual Environment (VE) applications is challenging where application developers are required to have expertise in the target VE technologies along with the problem domain expertise. New VE technologies impose a significant learning curve to even the most experienced VE developer. The proposed solution relies on synthesis to automate the migration of a VE application to a new unfamiliar VE platform/technology. To solve the problem, the Common Scene Definition Framework (CSDF) is developed, that serves as a superset/model representation of the target virtual world. Input modules are developed to populate the framework with the capabilities of the virtual world imported from VRML 2.0 and X3D formats. The synthesis capability is built into the framework to synthesize the virtual world into a subset of VRML 2.0, VRML 1.0, X3D, Java3D, JavaFX, JavaME, and OpenGL technologies, which may reside on different platforms. Interfaces are designed to keep the framework extensible to different and new VE formats/technologies. The framework demonstrated the ability to quickly synthesize a working prototype of the input virtual environment in different VE formats
The augmented reality framework : an approach to the rapid creation of mixed reality environments and testing scenarios
Debugging errors during real-world testing of remote platforms can be time consuming and expensive
when the remote environment is inaccessible and hazardous such as deep-sea. Pre-real world testing
facilities, such as Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL), are often not available due to the time and expense
necessary to create them. Testing facilities tend to be monolithic in structure and thus inflexible
making complete redesign necessary for slightly different uses. Redesign is simpler in the short term
than creating the required architecture for a generic facility. This leads to expensive facilities, due
to reinvention of the wheel, or worse, no testing facilities. Without adequate pre-real world testing,
integration errors can go undetected until real world testing where they are more costly to diagnose
and rectify, e.g. especially when developing Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs).
This thesis introduces a novel framework, the Augmented Reality Framework (ARF), for rapid
construction of virtual environments for Augmented Reality tasks such as Pure Simulation, HIL,
Hybrid Simulation and real world testing. ARF’s architecture is based on JavaBeans and is therefore
inherently generic, flexible and extendable. The aim is to increase the performance of constructing,
reconfiguring and extending virtual environments, and consequently enable more mature and stable
systems to be developed in less time due to previously undetectable faults being diagnosed earlier in
the pre-real-world testing phase. This is only achievable if test harnesses can be created quickly and
easily, which in turn allows the developer to visualise more system feedback making faults easier to
spot. Early fault detection and less wasted real world testing leads to a more mature, stable and
less expensive system.
ARF provides guidance on how to connect and configure user made components, allowing for
rapid prototyping and complex virtual environments to be created quickly and easily. In essence,
ARF tries to provide intuitive construction guidance which is similar in nature to LEGOR
pieces
which can be so easily connected to form useful configurations.
ARF is demonstrated through case studies which show the flexibility and applicability of ARF to
testing techniques such as HIL for UUVs. In addition, an informal study was carried out to asses the
performance increases attributable to ARF’s core concepts. In comparison to classical programming
methods ARF’s average performance increase was close to 200%. The study showed that ARF was
incredibly intuitive since the test subjects were novices in ARF but experts in programming. ARF
provides key contributions in the field of HIL testing of remote systems by providing more accessible
facilities that allow new or modified testing scenarios to be created where it might not have been
feasible to do so before. In turn this leads to early detection of faults which in some cases would not
have ever been detected before
Integrating realistic human group behaviors into a networked 3D virtual environment
Distributed Interactive Simulation DIS-Java-VRML Working Group. Includes supplementary material provided from the contents of a CD-Rom issued containing the work of all three Working Group members and all supplementary material, in compressed format.Virtual humans operating inside large-scale virtual environments (VE) are typically controlled as single entities. Coordination of group activity and movement is usually the responsibility of their real world human controllers. Georeferencing coordinate systems, single-precision versus double-precision number representation and network delay requirements make group operations difficult. Mounting multiple humans inside shared or single vehicles, (i.e. air-assault operations, mechanized infantry operations, or small boat/riverine operations) with high fidelity is often impossible. The approach taken in this thesis is to reengineer the DIS-Java-VRML Capture the Flag game geolocated at Fort Irwin, California to allow the inclusion of human entities. Human operators are given the capability of aggregating or mounting nonhuman entities for coordinated actions. Additionally, rapid content creation of human entities is addressed through the development of a native tag set for the Humanoid Animation (H-Anim) 1.1 Specification in Extensible 3D (X3D). Conventions are demonstrated for integrating the DIS-Java-VRML and H-Anim draft standards using either VRML97 or X3D encodings. The result of this work is an interface to aggregate and control articulated humans using an existing model with a standardized motion library in a networked virtual environment. Virtual human avatars can be mounted and unmounted from aggregation entities. Simple demonstration examples show coordinated tactical maneuver among multiple humans with and without vehicles. Live 3D visualization of animated humanoids on realistic terrain is then portrayed inside freely available web browsers.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited
Web-based medical training system and surgical simulator for interventional neuroradiology procedures
Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC
Analysis of Visualisation and Interaction Tools Authors
This document provides an in-depth analysis of visualization and interaction tools employed in the context of Virtual Museum. This analysis is required to identify and design the tools and the different components that will be part of the Common Implementation Framework (CIF). The CIF will be the base of the web-based services and tools to support the development of Virtual Museums with particular attention to online Virtual Museum.The main goal is to provide to the stakeholders and developers an useful platform to support and help them in the development of their projects, despite the nature of the project itself. The design of the Common Implementation Framework (CIF) is based on an analysis of the typical workflow ofthe V-MUST partners and their perceived limitations of current technologies. This document is based also on the results of the V-MUST technical questionnaire (presented in the Deliverable 4.1). Based on these two source of information, we have selected some important tools (mainly visualization tools) and services and we elaborate some first guidelines and ideas for the design and development of the CIF, that shall provide a technological foundation for the V-MUST Platform, together with the V-MUST repository/repositories and the additional services defined in the WP4. Two state of the art reports, one about user interface design and another one about visualization technologies have been also provided in this document
Navigation and Exploration in Virtual Environment with Virtual Agent using Java 3D
This project's objective was to investigate the potential used of Java 3D in
developing a virtual environment integrated with virtual agent. The methodology of
this project is constitutes on four (4) main phases; planning and analysis phase,
modeling and development phase, integration construction phase and the last is
testing phase. The testing phase indicates that in order to develop a virtual reality
(VR) application, the developer must perform hard-coded programming to model the
objects as well as to develop a behavior. Navigation and exploration activity in a
virtual environment can be perform easily by using keyboard arrows. To develop a
joint behavior between the virtual environment and virtual agent, complex and
careful programming is required. This project's conclusion indicates that Java 3D
provides other libraries to develop a VRapplication to better help user in navigation
and exploration in a virtual environment. For that reason, further study and
investigation can be conducted to achieve this goal
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