Head Mounted Wind

Within the context of tele-presence and immersion for piloting light aircraft, knowledge about the surrounding wind offers useful information for piloting purposes. Rendering wind in virtual simulation or tele-presence application has been used still the early sixties [ ] to enhance immersion. However since then it has been rather limited to use a fan in front of the user to produce an illusion of speed. This paper presents the development of a new haptic device generating wind around the user head. The system is based on an embedded system driving 8 fan actuators regularly distributed around a Head Mounted Display (HMD). In order to validate the added value of the device in the context of tele-operation, an application has been developed around a flight simulator where wind direction and forces are passed to the user via our system. Feedback from the different users of the applications shows improvements of the immersion inside the simulation. It also gives reliable information about the wind direction and forces using the most natural cues

Advanced virtual reality technologies for surveillance and security applications

We present a system that exploits advanced Virtual Reality technologies to create a surveillance and security system. Surveillance cameras are carried by a mini Blimp which is tele-operated using an innovative Virtual Reality interface with haptic feedback. An interactive control room (CAVE) receives multiple video streams from airborne and fixed cameras. Eye tracking technology allows for turning the user's gaze into the main interaction mechanism; the user in charge can examine, zoom and select specific views by looking at them. Video streams selected at the control room can be redirected to agents equipped with a PDA. On-field agents can examine the video sent by the control center and locate the actual position of the airborne cameras in a GPS-driven map. The PDA interface reacts to the user's gestures. A tilt sensor recognizes the position in which the PDA is held and adapts the interface accordingly. The prototype we present shows the added value of integrating VR technologies into a complex application and opens up several research directions in the areas of tele-operation, Multimodal Interfaces, etc. Copyright © 2006 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc

Reflex Movements for a Virtual Human: a Biology Inspired Approach

This paper presents the results of a method to produce autonomous animation of virtual humans. In particular, the proposed methodology is focused on the autonomous synthesis of non-voluntary gestures such as reflexes and subtle movements which provide a noticeable impression of realism and naturalness. The final goal of this technique is to produce virtual humans with a more spontaneous, non pre-programmed behaviour. For the moment, the technique is applied to the synthesis of reflex movements of the arm, in reaction to thermic stimuli. Nevertheless, a general architecture is outlined

Interaction Techniques: 3D Menus-Based Paradigm

A lot of things have been made in the Virtual Reality, concerning the mode of interaction techniques. The success of virtual environment applications depends on the degree of immersion and the comfort and naturalness of the interaction. In this paper

The Mental Vision framework - A platform for teaching, practicing and researching with computer graphics and virtual reality

Despite the wide amount of computer graphics frameworks and solutions available, it is still difficult to find a perfect one fitting at the same time many constraints, like pedagogical intents and user-friendliness or speed with high rendering quality and portability. In this article we describe our contribution to the topic: the Mental Vision platform. Mental Vision is a framework composed of a teaching/research oriented graphics engine simplifying the users needs in computer visualization and a set of corollary tools specifically designed for practicing and learning of computer graphics and virtual reality. In this dissertation we explain our approach design and the contribution brought into a series of study cases to show how concretely Mental Vision satisfies existing needs not addressed by other solutions

Wearable Obstacle Detection System for visually impaired People Abstract

This paper presents an obstacle detection system for visually impaired people. User can be alerted of closed obstacles in range while traveling in their environment. The system we propose detects the nearest obstacle via a stereoscopic sonar system and sends back vibro-tactile feedback to inform the user about its localization. The system aims at increasing the mobility of visually impaired people by offering new sensing abilities.

Sense of Presence in Virtual Reality Exposures Therapy

Virtual Reality Exposure is already considered as a valid technique in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It is an interesting approach to the question of Presence in Virtual Reality. The Sense of Presence (feeling of being in the Virtual Environment) is a complex mental mechanism that, as we expose here, is strongly linked to our emotional reasoning abilities. What we verify in our experiments is the importance of the psychological vulnerability of the patient and the strong impact of symbols in the perception of a virtual world. Psychiatric diagnostic and patient's reactions during exposure could also be considered as important elements in the evaluation of the Sense of presence