A survey on Quality of Experience of Virtual and Augmented Reality environments

Οι εφαρμογές εικονικής και επαυξημένης πραγματικότητας αποτελούν μια νέα και πολλά υποσχόμενη τεχνολογία, με εφαρμογές στην ιατρική, την εκπαίδευση, τα βιντεοπαιχνίδια, το ηλεκτρονικό εμπόριο και πολλές άλλες. Αυτή η τεχνολογία θέτει μια νέα πρόκληση για τους σχεδιαστές εφαρμογών, καθώς και για τους παρόχους υπηρεσιών δικτύου, επειδή είναι εντατική ως προς τους απαιτούμενους πόρους ώστε να είναι σε θέση να παρέχει συναρπαστική εμπειρία στους χρήστες της. Αυτή η πρόκληση γίνεται ακόμη πιο δύσκολη στα δίκτυα κινητής τηλεφωνίας, λόγω παραγόντων που είναι δύσκολο να μοντελοποιηθούν και να προβλεφθούν, όπως η κινητικότητα, η στρατηγική μεταβίβασης και η κατανομή πόρων. Αυτή η διπλωματική φιλοδοξεί να παράσχει μια ανασκόπηση των τεχνικών και μεθόδων εκτίμησης της ποιότητας της εμπειρίας (QoE) και των μεθόδων που έχουν αναπτυχθεί γύρω από αυτές τις εφαρμογές. Στην πρώτη ενότητα, εξετάζουμε τις στρατηγικές παροχής QoE για εφαρμογές εικονικής πραγματικότητας. Αυτή η ενότητα εξετάζει αρκετές περιπτώσεις εφαρμογών εικονικής πραγματικότητας, όπως ένα λογισμικό προσομοίωσης βαρέων μηχανημάτων, μια εκπαιδευτική εφαρμογή και άλλες ψηφιακές εφαρμογές εμβύθισης. Το εύρος και η ποικιλία των εφαρμογών και των μεθόδων εκτίμησης της ποιότητας της εμπειρίας οδηγούν σε αντικρουόμενα συμπεράσματα σχετικά με τις μεθόδους αξιολόγησης QoE. Στην επόμενη ενότητα αναφερόμαστε σε εφαρμογές επαυξημένης πραγματικότητας, και πάλι με μια αναφορά σε μια μεγάλη ποικιλία εφαρμογών, όπως ένας βοηθός επαυξημένης πραγματικότητας, βιντεοπαιχνίδια επαυξημένης πραγματικότητας και άλλες ψηφιακές εφαρμογές. Τα συμπεράσματα σε αυτήν την ενότητα είναι πιο ισχυρά και τα συναισθήματα των ανθρώπων μπορούν να σχηματίσουν πιο ουσιαστικά πορίσματα. Στην τελευταία ενότητα διερευνούμε την QoE σε εφαρμογές εικονικής και επαυξημένης πραγματικότητας για κινητές συσκευές και κινητά δίκτυα. Σε αυτό το μέρος ασχολούμαστε με πιο τεχνικές πτυχές όπως η διαχείριση της κινητικότητας, οι στρατηγικές μεταβίβασης και οι αλγόριθμοι κατανομής πόρων και ο αντίκτυπος που έχουν αυτοί στην εμπειρία των χρηστών.Virtual and augmented reality applications constitute a new and promising technology, with applications in medicine, education, gaming, e-commerce and many more. This technology poses a new challenge to application designers, as well as network service providers, because it is resource intensive in order to be able to provide the immersive experience to its users. This task becomes even more challenging in mobile networks, due to factors that are difficult to be modeled and predicted, such as mobility, handoff strategy and resource allocation. This thesis aspires to provide a review of Quality of Experience (QoE) estimation and provision techniques and methods that have been developed around these applications. In the first section, we review QoE provisioning strategies for virtual reality applications. This section examines some corner cases of augmented reality applications, such as a heavy machinery simulation software, an educational application, and many digital immersive applications. The scope and diversity of applications and implementation methods lead to some conflicting conclusions in relation to QoE evaluation methods. In the next section we refer to augmented reality applications, again with a reference to a wide variety of applications such as an augmented reality task assistant, augmented reality video games and digital immersive applications. The conclusions in this section are more robust and peoples’ feelings can form more meaningful aggregations. In the last section we investigate the QoE in virtual and augmented reality applications when these applications are implemented in mobile devices. Τhis part is concerned with more technical aspects such as mobility management, handoff strategies and resource allocation algorithms and their impact on users’ experience

Sonic interactions in virtual environments

This book tackles the design of 3D spatial interactions in an audio-centered and audio-first perspective, providing the fundamental notions related to the creation and evaluation of immersive sonic experiences. The key elements that enhance the sensation of place in a virtual environment (VE) are: Immersive audio: the computational aspects of the acoustical-space properties of Virutal Reality (VR) technologies Sonic interaction: the human-computer interplay through auditory feedback in VE VR systems: naturally support multimodal integration, impacting different application domains Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments will feature state-of-the-art research on real-time auralization, sonic interaction design in VR, quality of the experience in multimodal scenarios, and applications. Contributors and editors include interdisciplinary experts from the fields of computer science, engineering, acoustics, psychology, design, humanities, and beyond. Their mission is to shape an emerging new field of study at the intersection of sonic interaction design and immersive media, embracing an archipelago of existing research spread in different audio communities and to increase among the VR communities, researchers, and practitioners, the awareness of the importance of sonic elements when designing immersive environments

Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments

This open access book tackles the design of 3D spatial interactions in an audio-centered and audio-first perspective, providing the fundamental notions related to the creation and evaluation of immersive sonic experiences. The key elements that enhance the sensation of place in a virtual environment (VE) are: Immersive audio: the computational aspects of the acoustical-space properties of Virutal Reality (VR) technologies Sonic interaction: the human-computer interplay through auditory feedback in VE VR systems: naturally support multimodal integration, impacting different application domains Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments will feature state-of-the-art research on real-time auralization, sonic interaction design in VR, quality of the experience in multimodal scenarios, and applications. Contributors and editors include interdisciplinary experts from the fields of computer science, engineering, acoustics, psychology, design, humanities, and beyond. Their mission is to shape an emerging new field of study at the intersection of sonic interaction design and immersive media, embracing an archipelago of existing research spread in different audio communities and to increase among the VR communities, researchers, and practitioners, the awareness of the importance of sonic elements when designing immersive environments

Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments

This open access book tackles the design of 3D spatial interactions in an audio-centered and audio-first perspective, providing the fundamental notions related to the creation and evaluation of immersive sonic experiences. The key elements that enhance the sensation of place in a virtual environment (VE) are: Immersive audio: the computational aspects of the acoustical-space properties of Virutal Reality (VR) technologies Sonic interaction: the human-computer interplay through auditory feedback in VE VR systems: naturally support multimodal integration, impacting different application domains Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments will feature state-of-the-art research on real-time auralization, sonic interaction design in VR, quality of the experience in multimodal scenarios, and applications. Contributors and editors include interdisciplinary experts from the fields of computer science, engineering, acoustics, psychology, design, humanities, and beyond. Their mission is to shape an emerging new field of study at the intersection of sonic interaction design and immersive media, embracing an archipelago of existing research spread in different audio communities and to increase among the VR communities, researchers, and practitioners, the awareness of the importance of sonic elements when designing immersive environments

Evaluating the Perceived Quality of Binaural Technology

This thesis studies binaural sound reproduction from both a technical and a perceptual perspective, with the aim of improving the headphone listening experience for entertainment media audiences. A detailed review is presented of the relevant binaural technology and of the concepts and methods for evaluating perceived quality. A pilot study assesses the application of state-of-the-art binaural rendering systems to existing broadcast programmes, finding no substantial improvements in quality over conventional stereo signals. A second study gives evidence that realistic binaural simulation can be achieved without personalised acoustic calibration, showing promise for the application of binaural technology. Flexible technical apparatus is presented to allow further investigation of rendering techniques and content production processes. Two web-based studies show that appropriate combination of techniques can lead to improved experience for typical audience members, compared to stereo signals, even without personalised rendering or listener head-tracking. Recent developments in spatial audio applications are then discussed. These have made dynamic client-side binaural rendering with listener head-tracking feasible for mass audiences, but also present technical constraints. To limit distribution bandwidth and computational complexity during rendering, loudspeaker virtualisation is widely used. The effects on perceived quality of these techniques are studied in depth for the first time. A descriptive analysis experiment demonstrates that loudspeaker virtualisation during binaural rendering causes degradations to a range of perceptual characteristics and that these vary across other system conditions. A final experiment makes novel use of the check-all-that-apply method to efficiently characterise the quality of seven spatial audio representations and associated dynamic binaural rendering techniques, using single sound sources and complex dramatic scenes. The perceived quality of these different representations varies significantly across a wide range of characteristics and with programme material. These methods and findings can be used to improve the quality of current binaural technology applications

Satellite Communications

This study is motivated by the need to give the reader a broad view of the developments, key concepts, and technologies related to information society evolution, with a focus on the wireless communications and geoinformation technologies and their role in the environment. Giving perspective, it aims at assisting people active in the industry, the public sector, and Earth science fields as well, by providing a base for their continued work and thinking