The virtual playground: an educational virtual reality environment for evaluating interactivity and conceptual learning

The research presented in this paper aims at investigating user interaction in immersive virtual learning environments, focusing on the role and the effect of interactivity on conceptual learning. The goal has been to examine if the learning of young users improves through interacting in (i.e. exploring, reacting to, and acting upon) an immersive virtual environment (VE) compared to non-interactive or non-immersive environments. Empirical work was carried out with more than 55 primary school students between the ages of 8 and 12, in different between-group experiments: an exploratory study, a pilot study, and a large-scale experiment. The latter was conducted in a virtual environment designed to simulate a playground. In this “Virtual Playground,” each participant was asked to complete a set of tasks designed to address arithmetical “fractions” problems. Three different conditions, two experimental virtual reality (VR) conditions and a non-VR condition, that varied the levels of activity and interactivity, were designed to evaluate how children accomplish the various tasks. Pre-tests, post-tests, interviews, video, audio, and log files were collected for each participant, and analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. This paper presents a selection of case studies extracted from the qualitative analysis, which illustrate the variety of approaches taken by children in the VEs in response to visual cues and system feedback. Results suggest that the fully interactive VE aided children in problem solving but did not provide a strong evidence of conceptual change as expected; rather, it was the passive VR environment, where activity was guided by a virtual robot, that seemed to support student reflection and recall, leading to indications of conceptual change.     

Transfer of learning in virtual environments: a new challenge?

The aim of all education is to apply what we learn in different contexts and to recognise and extend this learning to new situations. Virtual learning environments can be used to build skills. Recent research in cognitive psychology and education has shown that acquisitions are linked to the initial context. This provides a challenge for virtual reality in education or training. A brief overview of transfer issues highlights five main ideas: (1) the type of transfer enables the virtual environment (VE) to be classified according to what is learned; (2) the transfer process can create conditions within the VE to facilitate transfer of learning; (3) specific features of VR must match and comply with transfer of learning; (4) transfer can be used to assess a VE’s effectiveness; and (5) future research on transfer of learning must examine the singular context of learning. This paper discusses how new perspectives in cognitive psychology influence and promote transfer of learning through the use of VEs.     

The physiological mirror—a system for unconscious control of a virtual environment through physiological activity

This paper introduces a system for real-time physiological measurement, analysis, and metaphorical visualization within a virtual environment (VE). Our goal is to develop a method that allows humans to unconsciously relate to parts of an environment more strongly than to others, purely induced by their own physiological responses to the virtual reality (VR) displays. In particular, we exploit heart rate, respiration, and galvanic skin response in order to control the behavior of virtual characters in the VE. Such unconscious processes may become a useful tool for storytelling or assist guiding participants through a sequence of tasks in order to make the application more interesting, e.g., in rehabilitation. We claim that anchoring of subjective bodily states to a virtual reality (VR) can enhance a person’s sense of realism of the VR and ultimately create a stronger relationship between humans and the VR.     

How does desktop virtual reality enhance learning outcomes? A structural equation modeling approach

This study examined how desktop virtual reality (VR) enhances learning and not merely does desktop VR influence learning. Various relevant constructs and their measurement factors were identified to examine how desktop VR enhances learning and the fit of the hypothesized model was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results supported the indirect effect of VR features to the learning outcomes, which was mediated by the interaction experience and the learning experience. Learning experience which was individually measured by the psychological factors, that is, presence, motivation, cognitive benefits, control and active learning, and reflective thinking took central stage in affecting the learning outcomes in the desktop VR-based learning environment. The moderating effect of student characteristics such as spatial ability and learning style was also examined. The results show instructional designers and VR software developers how to improve the learning effectiveness and further strengthen their desktop VR-based learning implementation. Through this research, an initial theoretical model of the determinants of learning effectiveness in a desktop VR-based learning environment is contributed.     

Spatialized Vibrotactile Feedback Improves Goal-Directed Movements in Cluttered Virtual Environments

Spatial awareness in virtual reality (VR) is a dominant research topic. It plays an essential role in the assessment of human operators’ behavior in simulated tasks, notably for the evaluation of the feasibility of manual maintenance tasks in cluttered industrial settings. In such contexts, it is decisive to evaluate the spatial and temporal correspondence between the operator’s movement kinematics and that of his/her virtual avatar in the virtual environment (VE). Often, in a cluttered VE, direct kinesthetic (force) feedback is limited or absent. We tested whether vibrotactile (cutaneous) feedback would increase visuo-proprioceptive consistency, spatial awareness, and thus the validity of VR studies, by augmenting the perception of the operator’s contact(s) with virtual objects. We present experimental results obtained using a head-mounted display (HMD) during a goal-directed task in a cluttered VE. Results suggest the contribution of spatialized vibrotactile feedback to visuo-proprioceptive consistency.     

虚拟环境概念模型建模方法研究*

由于目前常用的概念建模方法对于虚拟环境中物体方位、行为和交互模型等信息缺乏足够的描述方法,在吸取现有概念模型建模概念和技术的基础上,提出了虚拟环境概念模型建模框架,给出了虚拟场景静态结构和动态行为的概念建模方法,并通过虚拟化学实验平台的设计和实现验证了方法的可行性。通过在虚拟环境设计阶段引入概念建模阶段,使不具备专业编程知识的普通人员通过使用图形化的建模语言也能够进行虚拟环境的开发,为虚拟环境的顶层设计提供了一个科学、有效的手段。     

集成虚拟现实环境在工程设计分析中的应用 *

虚拟现实技术在工程设计与分析上有很大的应用潜力。可是 ,虚拟环境的创建时间长、成本高,极大地限制了虚拟现实技术在工程上的应用。为此 ,提出了虚拟现实脚本生成器的概念,将虚拟现实技术与过程的设计、分析集成化,创造性地提出了一种自上而下的设计方法———VR-IEDA,以便高效、快速地创建虚拟原型,提高计算机虚拟复杂系统工程的性价比。在 VR-IEDA中复杂系统的结构和行为被计算机捕捉并自动生成可执行的 VR仿真代码 ,从而减少了创建虚拟环境的时间,便利了基于仿真的过程分析和设计。最后 ,以武器系统的维修过程为     

Measurement of postural stability before and after immersion in a virtual environment

Research into the effects of simulators has led to suggestions that postural instability occurring after immersion in a virtual reality virtual environment (VR/VE) may have direct implications for the safety of post-immersion activities such as driving or operating machinery. However, experimental studies have highlighted a lack of standardisation in the postural stability measurement techniques applied and subsequent inconsistencies in the results obtained. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the use of static, dynamic and posturographic postural stability measures in determining the effect of participation in an interactive virtual environment (VE) for 20 min. The results demonstrate differences in the sensitivity of postural stability measurement techniques and variations in inter- and intra-individual responses to measures. The VE immersion was found to produce postural instability only when measured using a posturographic technique under normal stance static posture, and then only mildly and not long-lasting. No associations were found between reported symptoms of simulator sickness and postural stability with postural stability measures. This paper discusses issues relating to postural stability measurement and the implications for evaluation of virtual environment effects.     

Integration of manufacturing services into virtual environments over the internet

Virtual reality (VR) is a rapidly developing technology that has a wide spectrum of industrial and commercial applications. Networked (distributed or shared) virtual environments (VE) are of growing interest to modern manufacturing industry; a dominating use of networked virtual manufacturing environments (VMEs) is on-line visualisation and collaborative control of 3D information. This has to be supported by real-time data transfer. To meet a broad range of common requirements for Internet-based VE communications, particularly for virtual manufacturing and collaborative design and control, this paper presents a networked virtual environment system that is designed to support networked virtual design and manufacturing. The system is implemented with manufacturing message specification (MMS) standards so as to integrate a range of manufacturing services into networked VEs over the Internet.     

Perceiving affordances in virtual reality: influence of person and environmental properties in perception of standing on virtual grounds

We evaluated the perception of affordances in virtual environments (VE). In our work, we considered the affordances for standing on a virtual slanted surface. Participants were asked to judge whether a virtual slanted surface supported upright stance. The objective was to evaluate whether this perception was possible in virtual reality (VR) and comparable to previous works conducted in real environments. We found that the perception of affordances for standing on a slanted surface in virtual reality is possible and comparable (with an underestimation) to previous studies conducted in real environments. We also found that participants were able to extract and to use virtual information about friction in order to judge whether a slanted surface supported an upright stance. Finally, results revealed that the person’s position on the slanted surface is involved in the perception of affordances for standing on virtual grounds. Taken together, our results show quantitatively that the perception of affordances can be effective in virtual environments and influenced by both environmental and person properties. Such a perceptual evaluation of affordances in VR could guide VE designers to improve their designs and to better understand the effect of these designs on VE users.     

Perceiving interpersonally-mediated risk in virtual environments

Using virtual reality (VR) to examine risky behavior that is mediated by interpersonal contact, such as agreeing to have sex, drink, or smoke with someone, offers particular promise and challenges. Social contextual stimuli that might trigger impulsive responses can be carefully controlled in virtual environments (VE), and yet manipulations of risk might be implausible to participants if they do not feel sufficiently immersed in the environment. The current study examined whether individuals can display adequate evidence of presence in a VE that involved potential interpersonally-induced risk: meeting a potential dating partner. Results offered some evidence for the potential of VR for the study of such interpersonal risk situations. Participants’ reaction to the scenario and risk-associated responses to the situation suggested that the embodied nature of virtual reality override the reality of the risk’s impossibility, allowing participants to experience adequate situational embedding, or presence.     

A research on an intelligent multipurpose fuzzy semantic enhanced 3D virtual reality simulator for complex maritime missions

In this article, the idea of multipurpose fuzzy semantic enhanced 3D virtual reality simulator for the evaluation of maritime robot algorithms, and for the analysis of maritime missions is presented. The simulator uses the digital mockup technology in blending with semantic domain knowledge of the system, to analyze the tasks remotely. The 3D virtual reality (VR) is proposed to help the operators provide the detailed information and guidance during real-time tele-operations, and the incorporation of fuzzy semantic knowledge makes the virtual environment intelligent and automatic. The integration of fuzzy scene independent ontology with the virtual environment (VE) engenders a knowledge driven inter operable virtual environment which eases the user in natural language querying, personalization, interpretations and manipulation. The distinctive semantic VR scene builder utility of the proposed system draws the VR environment automatically while getting the high level specification of the system for the client. The proposed simulator can be effectively used for real-time robots trainings and for the evaluation of AI based algorithms designed for intelligent vessels and AUV’s without knowing the complex underlying VR scene building technologies. Furthermore, it provides the benefits to optimize the pre-process physical environment operations to mimic the real world into a virtual environment. The remote operations and feasibility analysis performed on virtual simulator can efficiently save the cost, time and claims to provide the operators a preprocessor information and guide.     

Reflecting on the Design Process for Virtual Reality Applications

A reflective analysis on the experience of virtual environment (VE) design is presented focusing on the human–computer interaction (HCI) challenges presented by virtual reality (VR). HCI design guidelines were applied to development of two VRs, one in marine archaeology and the other in situation awareness simulation experiments. The impact of methods and HCI knowledge on the VR design process is analyzed, leading to proposals for presenting HCI and cognitive knowledge in the context of design trade-offs in the choice of VR design techniques. Problems reconciling VE and standard Graphical User Interface (GUI) design components are investigated. A trade-off framework for design options set against criteria for usability, efficient operation, realism, and presence is proposed. HCI-VR design advice and proposals for further research aimed towards improving human factor-related design in VEs are discussed.     

Virtual reality provides real therapy

Virtual reality (VR) lets people act within and upon computer-generated environments, making it ideal for exposure therapy and some other forms of mental health treatment. In addition to representing stimuli with some degree of realism, a virtual environment (VE) lets users look at and interact with these things much as they would in the real world, using primarily their eyes and hands. This gives users a sense of physical as well as mental control over the things around them in the VE. SpiderWorld is one of a growing number of VEs that psychologists and VR researchers have begun to use to treat phobias and other anxiety disorders. SpiderWorld immerses the patient in a routine environmen-like a home kitchen-and introduces realistic-looking spiders that the patient can observe, manipulate or even squash as part of exposure therapy. Therapists who treat phobic patients often try to reduce anxiety by exposing a patient to the stimuli or situations that provoke the phobic reaction. Generating these as part of a VE promises a new approach to treatment-not to mention sparing some spiders their exoskeletons!     

VRMosaic: Web access from within a virtual environment

For the foreseeable future, users of virtual reality systems will likely spend more time in the “real” environment than in a virtual environment. In the “real” environment, users access much of their data using flat screen applications, which include tools such as authoring and analysis programs and even hyperlinked browsers. We believe that users will find VEs more appealing if they can import their flat screen applications. We also believe that the World Wide Web infrastructure, and supporting tools such as NCSA Mosaic, Netscape's Navigator, and Sun's HotJava, have become a de facto standard both for making data available and allowing limited interaction with that data. These beliefs motivated us to develop a technology for porting flat screen applications based on the 3.1 version of the InterViews toolkit into VR. NCSA Mosaic provided us with a real application that would: (1) test our infrastructure effectively; and (2) provide a compelling application example. We used our “2D interface in VR” infrastructure to port Mosaic into RealEyes, our VR system. Dubbed “VRMosaic”, this application lets users familiar with Mosaic access the Web from within an immersive VE. But VRMosaic is not just an embedded version of NCSA Mosaic-it also allows for VR specific features such as navigation within the VE     

虚拟场景中碰撞检测实用算法研究

碰撞检测是虚拟系统中的一项关键技术，也是提高虚拟系统现实感的一个重要因素。许多算法对碰撞检测的精度进行了研究，但对一个大型的虚拟场景，碰撞检测的范围则是影响仿真速度的主要因素。该文在包围盒检测技术研究的基础上，根据大型虚拟场景的特点，提出了碰撞发生的局部性、主动性、相邻性的观点，由此给出了虚拟游览系统中碰撞检测的DS算法，通过在本单位虚拟战场仿真系统的应用及分析表明，该算法对提高虚拟系统的运算效率是非常有效的。     

Virtual reality and its role in removing the barriers that turn cognitive impairments into intellectual disability

Early expectations of the contribution that virtual reality (VR) could make to education far exceeded actual applications. This was largely due to the initial immaturity of the technology and a lack of evidence base on which to base design and utilisation. While the early developments in computer based learning largely concentrated on mainstream education, leaving those with special needs behind, the potential of VR as an educational tool was exploited for those with intellectual disabilities right from the start. This paper describes the empirical evidence that has contributed to the development of educational virtual reality for those with intellectual disabilities: studies on transfer of learning from the virtual to the real world; how teachers might support those using VR; the design of virtual environments and what input/control devices best facilitate use of desktop VR. Future developments and ethical issues are also considered.     

Evaluation of Internal and External Validity of a Virtual Environment for Learning a Long Procedure

Virtual reality is a frequently used tool in vocational training. Nevertheless, its efficiency has not been systematically tested. The main goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a virtual environment (VE) for learning a complex procedure in the biomedical domain. Two experiments were performed. The first one assessed internal validity of the VE, which is the effectiveness of using a VE in the process of learning a new procedure. The second one tested external validity of the VE, which is the participants’ ability to reproduce the acquired skills in a real context. We find that internal and external validity must be evaluated before using a virtual environment in long-term procedure learning. The results of such evaluations are a basis for future experiments aiming to optimize learning conditions in a VE and transferring the acquired skills in a real context.