Virtual environments applications and applied ergonomics

The usability of virtual environments has attracted considerable efforts from ergonomists. Work has included studies of the side or after effects of participation in a virtual environment (VE) as well as the appropriateness of the Virtual Reality hardware and software interfaces and the understanding of factors which determine participant performance. Equally important for applied ergonomics is to understand how best to specify, build, implement and evaluate virtual environment solutions to everyday industrial, commercial, educational and medical problems. The potential value of ergonomics applied to virtual environments, and vice versa, are discussed. Two particular instances of VE development relevant to applied ergonomics are described - structured development and evaluation of industrial training and participatory redesign of workplaces. This paper is one of a number of contributions to a special issue on ergonomics in the study and use of virtual environments.     

Performing ergonomics analyses through virtual interactive design: Validity and reliability assessment

Virtual interactive design methodology was initially proposed as an integrated environment for digital human model–based ergonomics analysis of human–machine interactions, which uses a motion capture system and virtual environment to realize task simulation. The validity and reliability of this analysis methodology has not been systematically studied. In this article, potential errors are first investigated based on the technology used in the system structure and work process; then, three experimental integration levels are proposed to use different resources for creating manikin postures. Validity and reliability to use this integrated environment for static ergonomics analysis are then assessed by comparing the ergonomics analysis outputs achieved based on the three integration levels. The results indicate that the reliability of this methodology is good; however, the validity of the integrated system is affected by the limitation of the virtual environment used in the testing. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

基于Web的虚拟现实系统在实验教学中的应用

本文介绍了虚拟现实技术的基本原理和特征，并从素质教育的角度出发，探讨了基于WWW网络的虚拟现实系统在高校实验教学中的应用。     

The role of presence in the level of anxiety experienced in clinical virtual environments

Recent reviews point towards that Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) can be an effective medium to provide exposure therapy for anxiety disorders. The concept of presence, usually defined as the sense of being inside the virtual environment, has been considered the principal mechanism that leads to the experience of anxiety in clinical virtual environments. The present study sought to examine the relationship between sense of presence and in-session anxiety in a sample of 210 students showing high and low test anxiety when exposed to both clinical and non-stressful virtual environments. This is the largest study conducted to date with the aim of examining the relationship between presence and anxiety in clinical virtual environments, and the first to explore separately the relationship between presence and state-anxiety in phobic and non-phobic participants. The results suggest that presence was not related to anxiety in a non-stressful environment. It was also found that although presence is related to anxiety in both groups of students when exposed to clinical virtual environments, this relationship was clearly stronger for high test anxiety students. This line of research will broaden our understanding of the mechanisms that lead to the efficacy of VRET.     

Applying virtual reality for trust-building e-commerce environments

The application of virtual reality in e-commerce has enormous potential for transforming online shopping into a real-world equivalent. However, the growing research interest focuses on virtual reality technology adoption for the development of e-commerce environments without addressing social and behavioral facets of online shopping such as trust. At the same time, trust is a critical success factor for e-commerce and remains an open issue as to how it can be accomplished within an online store. This paper shows that the use of virtual reality for online shopping environments offers an advanced customer experience compared to conventional web stores and enables the formation of customer trust. The paper presents a prototype virtual shopping mall environment, designed on principles derived by an empirically tested model for building trust in e-commerce. The environment is evaluated with an empirical study providing evidence and explaining that a virtual reality shopping environment would be preferred by customers over a conventional web store and would facilitate the assessment of the e-vendor’s trustworthiness.     

A collaborative Design for Usability approach supported by Virtual Reality and a Multi-Agent System embedded in a PLM environment

This paper details a collaborative workstation design approach integrating knowledge based on engineering process, using a Multi-Agent System (MAS) on a Virtual Reality (VR) platform. The MAS supports R&D teams to extract and re-use engineering knowledge so as to improve their efficiency in developing new products. Our research targets the development of a knowledge engineering system integrated into a PLM-Product Life cycle Management-environment linked with virtual reality tools. A PLM is a strategic business approach with a consistent set of methodologies and software solutions. It is meant to promote collaborative creation, management, delivery and proper use of this life cycle definition and information product in multinational companies. This system is used by engineers to carry out projects in a collective way while conveying a defined process. The MAS allows capitalization, and to annotate knowledge according to the actions of the designers inside a PLM environment. Then, this knowledge is used by VR tools to analyze various aspects of the virtual prototype such as manufacturing, maintenance, reliability or ergonomics. Consequently, we use expert knowledge to pilot the design process of a virtual prototype inside a three-dimensional immersive virtual reality platform. In this context, our paper describes our knowledge management approach applied to improve ergonomics and collaborative design in industrial areas.     

基于虚拟现实技术的网络虚拟实验室设计与实现

针对如何克服实验条件的限制而随时随地开展实验,探讨应用虚拟现实技术开发虚拟实验的方法,并在此基础上实现一个网络化虚拟实验室系统,系统开发过程中采用的构建方法和实现技术能够应用于一般虚拟实验室系统的开发,为应用虚拟现实技术提高虚拟实验的真实感和改善教学效果提供可行的途径。     

三维虚拟学习环境的研究与应用

虚拟现实（VR）技术在教育领域的应用和发展丰富了现有教育体系中教与学的表现形式,它为建立以建构理论为理论基础的学习环境和学习模式起到了重要的推动作用。结合现有工作,阐述了以建构理论为理论基础的三维学习环境在远程教育上的运用。首先分析理论基础,而后探讨三维学习模式,最后以实例描述了建立三维虚拟学习环境的关键技术。     

基于虚拟现实技术的网络虚拟实验室设计与实现

针对如何克服实验条件的限制而随时随地开展实验,探讨应用虚拟现实技术开发虚拟实验的方法,并在此基础上实现一个网络化虚拟实验室系统,系统开发过程中采用的构建方法和实现技术能够应用于一般虚拟实验室系统的开发,为应用虚拟现实技术提高虚拟实验的真实感和改善教学效果提供可行的途径。     

基于Web虚拟现实技术的楼宇漫游系统的设计与研究

以校园楼宇及环境为例,采用B/S模式,应用3DMax、WebMax、VRPIE等开发工具,设计并实现基于Web虚拟现实技术的虚拟校园漫游系统,该技术除了可应用于楼宇智能化工程专业的教学实践以外,还为实现服务于学生的完全虚拟现实的交互式远程教学和虚拟学习交流社区迈出关键的一步。     

基于虚拟现实的成人教育系统

成人教育是当前教育事业的一个重要组成部分,但是随着社会的发展,当前成人教育的教学模式已经不能很好的满足社会发展的要求,成人教育改革势在必行。该文根据成人教育的特点设计了虚拟教学模式,能够有效的提高成人学生的教学质量。     

Synchronization between audiovisual and haptic feeling for constructing edutainment systems

Virtual reality (VR) technology has become more and more mature over the last decade. Development of a virtual environment for training purpose is considered to be one of the most practical applications of the VR technology. Since the VR technology involves all kinds of sensors in exchanging information between the real world and the virtual environment, it is computationally intensive in terms of data processing at an individual sensor and information integration among all the sensors. In general, the information integration has to be well synchronized in order to meet the training needs. At the same time, real-time processing capability is also considered to be critical. Many more practical issues could be uncovered only when a virtual training environment is actually being developed. Based on this belief, this study experiments on the development of a virtual environment for training billiards players. The technical difficulties encountered and the corresponding resolutions are considered beneficial to the development of other practical virtual training environments. This paper summarizes the design and implementation details about our experimental virtual training environment for edutainment systems such as virtual billiard game, virtual air hockey game and virtual drum performance with the algorithms for the synchronization of the information from different sources.     

A method for integrating ergonomics analysis into maintainability design in a virtual environment

Designers must consider human factors/ergonomics when making decisions from the perspective of maintainability. As an important aspect of maintainability, maintenance space should be made adequate at the design stage to achieve a convenient maintenance process. A maintenance space evaluation method that considers ergonomics is proposed in this study. By comparing free swept volumes and constrained swept volumes in a virtual environment, maintenance space could be evaluated quantitatively and objectively. The results of the evaluation are obtained by combining the principles of ergonomics and maintainability. These results can help designers improve product design such that it fits ergonomics and maintainability requirements. A case study is introduced at the end of this paper to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method in efficiently evaluating the maintenance space based on the layout design of the product components in the design stage.Relevant to industryFor a large number of disasters caused by human errors in current industry, the result of this study contributes a guide to fully consider human factors in maintainability design through virtual environment and is beneficial to designers and engineers of industrial application fields.     

VRML在远程教育中的应用

在某些以实验为基础的专业领域,远程教育中有必要对场景进行模拟,VRML则是建构这种虚拟学习环境的利器,用3DS MAX实现几何形体的三维建模,得到虚拟场景的对象,并用VRML及脚本创建虚拟的场景,可以生动地实现虚拟的实验活动。     

一个面向维修工程的虚拟人素分析系统软件框架

在工业产品、武器装备的维修性设计中，用虚拟现实技术进行人素分析，可以有效地提高产品的可维修性。该文提出了一个虚拟人素分析软件框架，并在此基础上，基于虚拟人平台—Jack，设计实现了一个虚拟人素分析系统。该系统根据给定的虚拟人体模型和虚拟样机进行人素分析并产生人素分析报告。该软件实现了维修仿真过程建模，以及基于维修仿真过程的人素分析功能，给用户提供了一个高效的分析环境。软件系统的应用实例研究表明，该文提出的软件框架是合理有效的。     

Employing virtual humans for education and training in X3D/VRML worlds

Web-based education and training provides a new paradigm for imparting knowledge; students can access the learning material anytime by operating remotely from any location. Web3D open standards, such as X3D and VRML, support Web-based delivery of Educational Virtual Environments (EVEs). EVEs have a great potential for learning and training purposes, by allowing one to circumvent physical, safety, and cost constraints. Unfortunately, EVEs often leave to the user the onus of taking the initiative both in exploring the environment and interacting with its parts. A possible solution to this problem is the exploitation of virtual humans acting as informal coaches or more formal instructors. For example, virtual humans can be employed to show and explain maintenance procedures, allowing learners to receive more practical explanations which are easier to understand. However, virtual humans are rarely used in Web3D EVEs, since the programming effort to develop and re-use them in different environments can be considerable. In this paper, we present a general architecture that allows content creators to easily integrate virtual humans into Web3D EVEs. To test the generality of our solution, we present two practical examples showing how the proposed architecture has been used in different educational contexts.     

虚拟地形建模及运动目标实时监测的研究

随着虚拟现实技术、3S技术、网络技术的发展,地形三维可视化和目标监测等方面已成为研究的热点。该文结合开发的应用系统论述了实现地球三维可视化的建模方法,以及Internet环境下在三维虚拟地形上实现目标监测的技术。     

Collaborative virtual learning environments: design and evaluation

E-learning systems have gone through a radical change from the initial text-based environments to more stimulating multimedia systems. Such systems are Collaborative Virtual Environments, which could be used in order to support collaborative e-learning scenarios. The main aim of this paper is to aid educational designers in selecting, designing and evaluating three dimensional collaborative virtual environments in order to gain the pedagogical benefits of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. Therefore, this paper initially discusses the potential of three dimensional networked virtual environments for supporting collaborative learning. Furthermore, based on a two-step platform selection process this paper (a) presents and compares three dimensional multi-user virtual environments for supporting collaborative learning and (b) validates the most promising solution against a set of design principles for educational virtual environments. According to these principles, an educational environment has been implemented on top of the selected platform in order to support collaborative e-learning scenarios. The design of this environment is also presented. In addition, this paper presents the results of three small scale studies carried out in a tertiary education department, to assess the educational environment. This environment has been evaluated based on a hybrid evaluation methodology for uncovering usability problems, collecting further requirements for additional functionality to support collaborative virtual learning environments, and determining the appropriateness of different kinds of learning scenarios.

Computerized task risk assessment using digital human modeling based Job Risk Classification Model

Different from the classical ergonomics analysis, Virtual Interactive Design methodology relies on manikin movements in virtual environment. This platform has been implemented by researchers to accomplish static ergonomic analyses including Rapid Upper Limb Assessment, NIOSH lifting equation and Static Strength Prediction. However, considering only static posture information limits the capacity of ergonomics analysis. In this study, the methodology of performing dynamic ergonomics analysis based on this Virtual Interactive Design platform is proposed. This environment allows velocity and angular velocity of specified body segments/joints calculated for designed tasks to be used to assess the corresponding risk levels based on Job Risk Classification Model. The motion calculation is completed based on the captured interaction between human participants and virtual workplace/mockup. To evaluate the validity and reliability of this upgraded platform, potential errors are analyzed by comparing outputs from several designed experimental conditions.     

Incorporating Tactile Cues into Human‐Centered Virtual Product Design

This study introduces a high‐fidelity tactile feedback mechanism to capture ergonomics attributes of users inside virtual product development cycle. The research question posed regards whether the tactile feedback mechanism in virtual experiment proposes high fidelity of ergonomics results when compared to physical experiment outcomes. This question was evaluated through an objective and a subjective study. Objective study was composed of an ergonomics product assessment experiment, where two different cart designs (a commercial cart and a prototype model) were evaluated for ergonomic adequacy (L4/L5 compression forces). Subjective evaluation was consisted of a questionnaire to assess subjects' preferences regarding which cart model they preferred in three different design categories; maneuverability, accessibility, and ergonomics. Results showed that tactile feedback mechanism was able to replicate the physical test conditions in virtual environment with high fidelity, and prototype cart model received higher mean ratings when compared to commercial cart model in each design category.