Using a Head-Mounted Video Camera to Understand Social Worlds and Experiences

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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

Introduction to location-based mobile learning

[About the book] The report follows on from a 2-day workshop funded by the STELLAR Network of Excellence as part of their 2009 Alpine Rendez-Vous workshop series and is edited by Elizabeth Brown with a foreword from Mike Sharples. Contributors have provided examples of innovative and exciting research projects and practical applications for mobile learning in a location-sensitive setting, including the sharing of good practice and the key findings that have resulted from this work. There is also a debate about whether location-based and contextual learning results in shallower learning strategies and a section detailing the future challenges for location-based learning

Augmenting the field experience: a student-led comparison of techniques and technologies

In this study we report on our experiences of creating and running a student fieldtrip exercise which allowed students to compare a range of approaches to the design of technologies for augmenting landscape scenes. The main study site is around Keswick in the English Lake District, Cumbria, UK, an attractive upland environment popular with tourists and walkers. The aim of the exercise for the students was to assess the effectiveness of various forms of geographic information in augmenting real landscape scenes, as mediated through a range of techniques and technologies. These techniques were: computer-generated acetate overlays showing annotated wireframe views from certain key points; a custom-designed application running on a PDA; a mediascape running on the mScape software on a GPS-enabled mobile phone; Google Earth on a tablet PC; and a head-mounted in-field Virtual Reality system. Each group of students had all five techniques available to them, and were tasked with comparing them in the context of creating a visitor guide to the area centred on the field centre. Here we summarise their findings and reflect upon some of the broader research questions emerging from the project

Viewing the Future? Virtual Reality In Journalism

Journalism underwent a flurry of virtual reality content creation, production and distribution starting in the final months of 2015. The New York Times distributed more than 1 million cardboard virtual reality viewers and released an app showing a spherical video short about displaced refugees. The Los Angeles Times landed people next to a crater on Mars. USA TODAY took visitors on a ride-along in the "Back to the Future" car on the Universal Studios lot and on a spin through Old Havana in a bright pink '57 Ford. ABC News went to North Korea for a spherical view of a military parade and to Syria to see artifacts threatened by war. The Emblematic Group, a company that creates virtual reality content, followed a woman navigating a gauntlet of anti- abortion demonstrators at a family planning clinic and allowed people to witness a murder-suicide stemming from domestic violence.In short, the period from October 2015 through February 2016 was one of significant experimentation with virtual reality (VR) storytelling. These efforts are part of an initial foray into determining whether VR is a feasible way to present news. The year 2016 is shaping up as a period of further testing and careful monitoring of potential growth in the use of virtual reality among consumers

Teaching Cultural Heritage using Mobile Augmented Reality

open2noThe relationship between augmented reality, mobile learning, gamification and non-formal education methods provide a great potential. The AR-CIMUVE Augmented Reality for the Walled Cities of the Veneto is an original project in collaboration with Italia Nostra and other associations which deal with transmitting our cultural heritage and which teach primary and middle school children the cultural and historical importance of the Veneto’s and the surrounding territories’ walled cities. In this learning experience students will explore how our environment has developed across the ages using the mobile devices with the technical back-up of the AR App. This will allow them to see maps, examine data, 3D models and will enable them to judge and improve their skills. From a pedagogical and educational point of view the emphasis is on a constructivist social-cultural approach which helps students to become active citizens more aware of their historical identity.openPetrucco, Corrado; Agostini, DanielePetrucco, Corrado; Agostini, Daniel

Using Virtual Reality to increase technical performance during rowing workouts

Technology is advancing rapidly in virtual reality (VR) and sensors, gathering feedback from our body and the environment we are interacting in. Combining the two technologies gives us the opportunity to create personalized and reactive immersive environments. These environments can be used e.g. for training in dangerous situations (e.g. fire, crashes, etc), or to improve skills with less distraction than regular natural environments would have. The pilot study described in this thesis puts an athlete who is rowing on a stationary rowing machine into a virtual environment. The VR takes movement from several sensors of the ergo-meter and displays those in VR. In addition, metrics on technique are being derived from the sensor data and physiological data. All this is used to investigate if, and to which extent, VR may improve the technical skills of the athlete during the complex sport of rowing. Furthermore, athletes are giving subjective feedback about their experience comparing a standard rowing workout, with the workout using VR. First results indicate better performance and an enhanced experience by the athlete