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

Virtual Library - Blending Mirror and Fantasy Layers into a VR Interface for a Public Library

We present an immersive VR interface for a public library where a mirror-world like virtual copy of the physical library is blended with imaginary virtual fantasy layers into a hybrid space for library content. The design of the system was guided by multi-stakeholder Participatory Design process involving library staff, library customers and researchers. The findings of the qualitative user evaluation of the prototype suggest that this kind of a VR interface is an exciting extension to a physical library, indicating the unlimited possibilities offered by the VR’s ability to send the user into imaginary places.Peer reviewe

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

Link to Hypergravity VR Throwing code

Up-to-date link for the project code used in "Adaptation to Simulated Hypergravity in a Virtual Reality Throwing Task

Elderly Healthcare Monitoring Using an Avatar-Based 3D Virtual Environment

Homecare systems for elderly people are becoming increasingly important due to both economic reasons as well as patients’ preferences. Sensor-based surveillance technologies are an expected future trend, but research so far has devoted little attention to the User Interface (UI) design of such systems and the user-centric design approach. In this paper, we explore the possibilities of an avatar-based 3D visualization system, which exploits wearable sensors and human activity simulations. We present a technical prototype and the evaluation of alternative concept designs for UIs based on a 3D virtual world. The evaluation was conducted with homecare providers through focus groups and an online survey. Our results show firstly that systems taking advantage of 3D virtual world visualization techniques have potential especially due to the privacy preserving and simplified information presentation style, and secondly that simple representations and glancability should be emphasized in the design. The identified key use cases highlight that avatar-based 3D presentations can be helpful if they provide an overview as well as details on demand

Traffic visualization - applying information visualization techniques to enhance traffic planning

In this paper, we present a space-time visualization to provide city’s decision-makers the ability to analyse and uncover important “city events” in an understandable manner for city planning activities. An interactive Web mashup visualization is presented that integrates several visualization techniques to give a rapid overview of traffic data. We illustrate our approach as a case study for traffic visualization systems, using datasets from the city of Oulu that can be extended to other city planning activities. We also report the feedback of real users (traffic management employees, traffic police officers, city planners) to support our arguments.Postprin

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

Funding Information: This work was supported by the Academy of Finland research projects DISC 332143 and PIXIE 331822 . We thank the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland for funding the development of Forest Elf application (Our Shared Virtual World project). We are grateful to all our library collaborators and study participants for making this work possible. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)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.Peer reviewe

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