Augmenting Immersive Telepresence Experience with a Virtual Body

We propose augmenting immersive telepresence by adding a virtual body, representing the user's own arm motions, as realized through a head-mounted display and a 360-degree camera. Previous research has shown the effectiveness of having a virtual body in simulated environments; however, research on whether seeing one's own virtual arms increases presence or preference for the user in an immersive telepresence setup is limited. We conducted a study where a host introduced a research lab while participants wore a head-mounted display which allowed them to be telepresent at the host's physical location via a 360-degree camera, either with or without a virtual body. We first conducted a pilot study of 20 participants, followed by a pre-registered 62 participant confirmatory study. Whereas the pilot study showed greater presence and preference when the virtual body was present, the confirmatory study failed to replicate these results, with only behavioral measures suggesting an increase in presence. After analyzing the qualitative data and modeling interactions, we suspect that the quality and style of the virtual arms, and the contrast between animation and video, led to individual differences in reactions to the virtual body which subsequently moderated feelings of presence.Comment: Accepted for publication in Transactions in Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), to be presented in IEEE VR 202

Augmented virtuality:transforming real human activity into virtual environments

Abstract The topic of this work is the transformation of real-world human activity into virtual environments. More specifically, the topic is the process of identifying various aspects of visible human activity with sensor networks and studying the different ways how the identified activity can be visualized in a virtual environment. The transformation of human activities into virtual environments is a rather new research area. While there is existing research on sensing and visualizing human activity in virtual environments, the focus of the research is carried out usually within a specific type of human activity, such as basic actions and locomotion. However, different types of sensors can provide very different human activity data, as well as lend itself to very different use-cases. This work is among the first to study the transformation of human activities on a larger scale, comparing various types of transformations from multiple theoretical viewpoints. This work utilizes constructs built for use-cases that require the transformation of human activity for various purposes. Each construct is a mixed reality application that utilizes a different type of source data and visualizes human activity in a different way. The constructs are evaluated from practical as well as theoretical viewpoints. The results imply that different types of activity transformations have significantly different characteristics. The most distinct theoretical finding is that there is a relationship between the level of detail of the transformed activity, specificity of the sensors involved and the extent of world knowledge required to transform the activity. The results also provide novel insights into using human activity transformations for various practical purposes. Transformations are evaluated as control devices for virtual environments, as well as in the context of visualization and simulation tools in elderly home care and urban studies.Tiivistelmä Tämän väitöskirjatyön aiheena on ihmistoiminnan muuntaminen todellisesta maailmasta virtuaalitodellisuuteen. Työssä käsitellään kuinka näkyvästä ihmistoiminnasta tunnistetaan sensoriverkkojen avulla erilaisia ominaisuuksia ja kuinka nämä ominaisuudet voidaan esittää eri tavoin virtuaaliympäristöissä. Ihmistoiminnan muuntaminen virtuaaliympäristöihin on kohtalaisen uusi tutkimusalue. Olemassa oleva tutkimus keskittyy yleensä kerrallaan vain tietyntyyppisen ihmistoiminnan, kuten perustoimintojen tai liikkumisen, tunnistamiseen ja visualisointiin. Erilaiset anturit ja muut datalähteet pystyvät kuitenkin tuottamaan hyvin erityyppistä dataa ja siten soveltuvat hyvin erilaisiin käyttötapauksiin. Tämä työ tutkii ensimmäisten joukossa ihmistoiminnan tunnistamista ja visualisointia virtuaaliympäristössä laajemmassa mittakaavassa ja useista teoreettisista näkökulmista tarkasteltuna. Työssä hyödynnetään konstrukteja jotka on kehitetty eri käyttötapauksia varten. Konstruktit ovat sekoitetun todellisuuden sovelluksia joissa hyödynnetään erityyppistä lähdedataa ja visualisoidaan ihmistoimintaa eri tavoin. Konstrukteja arvioidaan sekä niiden käytännön sovellusalueen, että erilaisten teoreettisten viitekehysten kannalta. Tulokset viittaavat siihen, että erilaisilla muunnoksilla on selkeästi erityyppiset ominaisuudet. Selkein teoreettinen löydös on, että mitä yksityiskohtaisemmasta toiminnasta on kyse, sitä vähemmän tunnistuksessa voidaan hyödyntää kontekstuaalista tietoa tai tavanomaisia datalähteitä. Tuloksissa tuodaan myös uusia näkökulmia ihmistoiminnan visualisoinnin hyödyntämisestä erilaisissa käytännön sovelluskohteissa. Sovelluskohteina toimivat ihmiskehon käyttäminen ohjauslaitteena sekä ihmistoiminnan visualisointi ja simulointi kotihoidon ja kaupunkisuunnittelun sovellusalueilla

Meso-level strategies for design participation and education:libraries as networked learning spaces

Abstract Design participation and education are important vehicles for building citizenship skills in democratic societies. However, there is a considerable gap between macro-level aims to include the civil society at large and Participatory Design (PD) methods to include citizens on the micro-level. Thus, we argue for meso-level approaches that would enable PD and education practitioners to build scalable methods of digital inclusion. We present the case of Virtual Library in Oulu City Library as a hands-on case study example in our workshop. In order to build scalable methods, we offer libraries as an example of a networked learning space to achieve this synergistically with an existing social and cultural service program, the public library system. We invite practitioners, educators and scholars from all backgrounds to explore, develop and critique meso-level approaches and networked learning spaces in their various cultural and national contexts of practice at this two-hour long workshop

From hybrid spaces to “imagination cities”:a speculative approach to virtual reality

Abstract Digital and physical space are already profoundly entangled in contemporary cities due to the pervasive use of new digital technology. We explore the experiential implications of the potential next step of this development: we discuss the consequences of augmenting public urban places with immersive, large-scale digital layers realized with cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) technologies. These technologies enable experiences that are inherently spatial, immersive and visceral; therefore, they differ considerably from the digital technologies currently used in public urban places. We concentrate especially in imaginative aspect of VR as a medium. The empirical context for the study is provided by a novel digital design artefact, the Virtual Library, whose design process was guided by a design anthropological approach and executed with methods drawn especially from Participatory Design (PD). The design of the application was a long-term collaborative process executed with the Oulu City Library in 2016–2018. As the final design outcome, the physical library building was modelled into a detailed 3D virtual mirror world that was extended with a virtual fantasy layer having no direct counterpart in the real world. With research data collected from the use of Virtual Library, we explore the experiential implications of interlacing public urban places with imaginary digital layers. The Chapter arrives at the notion of “imagination city”, based on the concept of “imagination age”. The latter refers to a period that supposedly follows the information age; in this period, creativity and imagination become the central drivers of economic value. The notion is also connected to the promises of emerging technology, such as VR, which is forecast to change the ways of human beings interacting with each other and with their environment. Extending from our findings with Virtual Library, we discuss the experiential and also societal implications of imaginary digital layers such as the fantasy layer of our Virtual Library becoming more commonplace in future cities. Could the smart city, often understood as a result of the information age, be heading towards becoming an “imagination city”? We also point out some limitations and potential future directions of this speculative development

A qualitative case study on deconstructing presence for young adults and older adults

Abstract In this paper, we present the results of an exploratory qualitative case study on presence experienced by groups of young adults and older adults during their use of an interactive virtual reality application mixing realistic and fantasy elements. In contrast to most previous studies, we do not focus on a set of predetermined factors but instead adopt an open-ended qualitative approach to identify emerging factors from the users’ experiences. We then analyze these factors against the place illusion/plausibility illusion (PI/PSI) framework of Skarbez, Neyret, et al. (2017) to investigate whether PI and PSI, as well as their contributing factors, can be separated. According to our findings, a user can experience PI and PSI independently from each other; however, they often appeared intermixed when investigated on the scope of the whole experience. Breaks in presence, as well as breaks in plausibility, could mostly, but not entirely, be attributed to immersion and coherence factors, respectively. An interesting finding is that both participant groups turned out to have two subgroups interpreting their experience with a particular frame of reference of differing expectations. These frames of reference affected not only PSI, as expected, but PI as well, suggesting that coherence could be a contributing factor to both PI and PSI. Our contribution adds to the relatively small body of research investigating the separation of PI and PSI. Our exploratory findings can be utilized as directions for designing future confirmatory studies

Effects of visual realism and moving detail on cybersickness

Abstract In this study we compare two conditions of visual detail — modern graphics and detail reduction through cel-shading — in experiencing Cybersickness during virtual movement along a preprogrammed path within a scene depicting a real-world outdoor museum viewed with Oculus CV1. The Cybersickness experience was quantified with the Fast-Motion-Sickness (FMS) scale and the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). We found weak evidence for realistic graphics being more sickness-inducing. Also, FMS scores peaked whenever a participant was entering a building

The body scaling effect and its impact on physics plausibility

Abstract In this study we investigated the effect of body ownership illusion-based body scaling on physics plausibility in Virtual Reality (VR). Our interest was in examining whether body ownership illusion-based body scaling could affect the plausibility of rigid body dynamics similarly to altering VR users’ scale by manipulating their virtual interpupillary distance and viewpoint height. The procedure involved the conceptual replication of two previous studies. We investigated physics plausibility with 40 participants under two conditions. In our synchronous condition, we used visuo-tactile stimuli to elicit a body ownership illusion of inhabiting an invisible doll-sized body on participants reclining on an exam table. Our asynchronous condition was otherwise similar, but the visuo-tactile stimuli were provided asynchronously to prevent the onset of the body ownership illusion. We were interested in whether the correct approximation of physics (true physics) or physics that are incorrect and appearing as if the environment is five times larger instead (movie physics) appear more realistic to participants as a function of body scale. We found that movie physics did appear more realistic to participants under the body ownership illusion condition. However, our hypothesis that true physics would appear more realistic in the asynchronous condition was unsupported. Our exploratory analyses revealed that movie physics were perceived as plausible under both conditions. Moreover, we were not able to replicate previous findings from literature concerning object size estimations while inhabiting a small invisible body. However, we found a significant opposite effect regarding size estimations; the object sizes were on average underestimated during the synchronous visuo-tactile condition when compared to the asynchronous condition. We discuss these unexpected findings and the potential reasons for the results, and suggest avenues for future research

Implementation of a virtual reality interface for a public library

Abstract In this demo paper we describe the development process and technical implementation of an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) application dubbed Virtual Library. The application utilizes consumer VR hardware and Unreal Engine to provide an immersive virtual interface to a physical library and its selected services, as well as browsing of literature content in aesthetic fantasy realms. The prototype is publicly available at the Oulu City Library

Public libraries as a partner in digital innovation project:designing a virtual reality experience to support digital literacy

Abstract We introduce a project titled as Our Shared Virtual World which aims at increasing public libraries’ capability to provide knowledge on digital technology to general public. The practical goal of the project has been to produce a functional prototype of a virtual reality (VR) application that could be utilized freely in all the public libraries in Finland. In many countries worldwide, libraries’ role is expanding from providers of traditional books to providers of information technologies and related new forms of literacy, and this development provides the broader backdrop for the project. The contribution of the article is two-fold: First, we describe how an immersive VR application can be collaboratively developed within this specific research context, namely within a network of public libraries, and introduce the tangible outcome of the project, the VR application called Forest Elf. Secondly, we scrutinize how results of such a design work can be sustained over time: through participatory design (PD), we aimed at creating conditions which would enable public libraries to continue developing and using the artefact also after the project. We provide insights on how to tackle the challenge of research prototypes ending up being abandoned, and what factors in the context of library partnership support or hamper sustainable digital innovation — digital innovation that is inclusive and equitable but also has a long-lasting impact

Comparison of two workflows for Web-based 3D smart home visualizations

Abstract In the built environment, the emergence of Internet of Things and the Smart Building paradigm increase the amount of networked systems that produce data from their environment. 3D user interfaces can help users cope with these systems. A 3D representation of a building can operate as a starting point for creating these interfaces. We experimented with creating a 3DUI for sensor network data visualization in two cases, testing both a manually created game engine model and a BIM model as a basis. Solutions were compared in terms of performance. While BIM model captures both the 3D geometry of a building along with its structural properties, some limitations were encountered in using it for online 3D application development