Non-Verbal Communication for a Virtual Reality Interface

The steady growth of technology has allowed to extend all forms of human-computer communication. Since the emergence of more sophisticated interaction devices, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) science has added the issue of Non-Verbal Communication (NVC). Nowadays, there are a lot of applications such as interactive entertainments and virtual reality requiring more natural and intuitive interfaces. Human gestures constitute a great space of actions expressed by the body, face, and/or hands. Hand Gesture is frequently used in people’s daily life, thus it is an alternative form to communicate with computers in an easy way. This paper introduces a real-time hand gesture recognition and tracking system to identify different and dinamic hand postures. In order to improve the user experience, a set of different system functions into a virtual world had been implemented so interaction can be performed by the user through a data glove device.XIV Workshop Computación Gráfica, Imágenes y Visualización (WCGIV).Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Non-Verbal Communication for a Virtual Reality Interface

The steady growth of technology has allowed to extend all forms of human-computer communication. Since the emergence of more sophisticated interaction devices, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) science has added the issue of Non-Verbal Communication (NVC). Nowadays, there are a lot of applications such as interactive entertainments and virtual reality requiring more natural and intuitive interfaces. Human gestures constitute a great space of actions expressed by the body, face, and/or hands. Hand Gesture is frequently used in people’s daily life, thus it is an alternative form to communicate with computers in an easy way. This paper introduces a real-time hand gesture recognition and tracking system to identify different and dinamic hand postures. In order to improve the user experience, a set of different system functions into a virtual world had been implemented so interaction can be performed by the user through a data glove device.XIV Workshop Computación Gráfica, Imágenes y Visualización (WCGIV).Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

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

Interaction in Metaverse: A Survey

Human-computer interaction (HCI) emerged with the birth of the computer and has been upgraded through decades of development. Metaverse has attracted a lot of interest with its immersive experience, and HCI is the entrance to the Metaverse for people. It is predictable that HCI will determine the immersion of the Metaverse. However, the technologies of HCI in Metaverse are not mature enough. There are many issues that we should address for HCI in the Metaverse. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review on the key technologies and applications of HCI in the Metaverse. This paper is a comprehensive survey of HCI for the Metaverse, focusing on current technology, future directions, and challenges. First, we provide a brief overview of HCI in the Metaverse and their mutually exclusive relationships. Then, we summarize the evolution of HCI and its future characteristics in the Metaverse. Next, we envision and present the key technologies involved in HCI in the Metaverse. We also review recent case studies of HCI in the Metaverse. Finally, we highlight several challenges and future issues in this promising area.Comment: Preprint. 3 figures, 3 table

Virtual Meeting Rooms: From Observation to Simulation

Much working time is spent in meetings and, as a consequence, meetings have become the subject of multidisciplinary research. Virtual Meeting Rooms (VMRs) are 3D virtual replicas of meeting rooms, where various modalities such as speech, gaze, distance, gestures and facial expressions can be controlled. This allows VMRs to be used to improve remote meeting participation, to visualize multimedia data and as an instrument for research into social interaction in meetings. This paper describes how these three uses can be realized in a VMR. We describe the process from observation through annotation to simulation and a model that describes the relations between the annotated features of verbal and non-verbal conversational behavior.\ud As an example of social perception research in the VMR, we describe an experiment to assess human observers’ accuracy for head orientation

Refining personal and social presence in virtual meetings

Virtual worlds show promise for conducting meetings and conferences without the need for physical travel. Current experience suggests the major limitation to the more widespread adoption and acceptance of virtual conferences is the failure of existing environments to provide a sense of immersion and engagement, or of ‘being there’. These limitations are largely related to the appearance and control of avatars, and to the absence of means to convey non-verbal cues of facial expression and body language. This paper reports on a study involving the use of a mass-market motion sensor (Kinect™) and the mapping of participant action in the real world to avatar behaviour in the virtual world. This is coupled with full-motion video representation of participant’s faces on their avatars to resolve both identity and facial expression issues. The outcomes of a small-group trial meeting based on this technology show a very positive reaction from participants, and the potential for further exploration of these concepts