The influence of attentional engagement and spatial characteristics on time perception in virtual reality

Virtual Reality - Virtual reality (VR) is a simulation tool that is being used extensively to study the effects of training and perception. However, several studies have shown that some aspects of...     

Depth perception in shuffleboard: Depth cues effect on depth perception in virtual and augmented reality system

The virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications have been widely used in a variety of fields; one of the key requirements in a VR or AR system is to understand how users perceive depth in the virtual environment and AR. Three different graphics depth cues are designed in shuffleboard to explore what kind of graphics depth cues are beneficial for depth perception. We also conduct a depth‐matching experiment to compare performance in VR and AR systems using an optical see‐through head‐mounted display (HMD). The result shows that the absolute error increases as the distance becomes farther. Analysis from the inverse of distance shows that box depth cues have a significant effect on depth perception, while the points depth cues and line depth cues have no significant effect. The error in diopter in AR experiment is lower than that in VR experiment. Participants in the AR experiment under medium illuminance condition have less error than those under low and high illuminance conditions. Men have less error than women in certain display conditions, but the advantage disappears when there is a strong depth cue. Besides, there is no significant effect of completion time on depth perception.     

Tuning self-motion perception in virtual reality with visual illusions

Motion perception in immersive virtual environments significantly differs from the real world. For example, previous work has shown that users tend to underestimate travel distances in virtual environments (VEs). As a solution to this problem, researchers proposed to scale the mapped virtual camera motion relative to the tracked real-world movement of a user until real and virtual motion are perceived as equal, i.e., real-world movements could be mapped with a larger gain to the VE in order to compensate for the underestimation. However, introducing discrepancies between real and virtual motion can become a problem, in particular, due to misalignments of both worlds and distorted space cognition. In this paper, we describe a different approach that introduces apparent self-motion illusions by manipulating optic flow fields during movements in VEs. These manipulations can affect self-motion perception in VEs, but omit a quantitative discrepancy between real and virtual motions. In particular, we consider to which regions of the virtual view these apparent self-motion illusions can be applied, i.e., the ground plane or peripheral vision. Therefore, we introduce four illusions and show in experiments that optic flow manipulation can significantly affect users' self-motion judgments. Furthermore, we show that with such manipulations of optic flow fields the underestimation of travel distances can be compensated.     

Three views of virtual reality: nonimmersive virtual reality

Nonimmersive virtual reality (VR), which places the user in a 3D environment that can be directly manipulated with a conventional graphics workstation using a monitor, a keyboard; and a mouse, is discussed. The scene is displayed with the same 3D depth cues used in immersive VR: perspective view, hidden-surface elimination, color, texture, lighting, shading and shadows. As in immersive VR, animation and simulation are interactively controlled in response to the user's direct manipulation. Much of the technology used to support immersive and nonimmersive VR is the same. They use the same 3D modeling and rendering and many of the same interaction techniques. The advantages and applications of nonimmersive VR systems are discussed. Immersive and nonimmersive VR systems are compared and hybrid possibilities are reviewed     

Cobol: perception and reality

The authors list the perceptions they have uncovered and counter them with the reality of Cobol. Some of the perceptions are: Cobol is a mainframe language-it has been available on PCs since their inception; Cobol stopped evolving in the 1970s, stopped growing in popularity in the 1980s, and stopped being used to develop client-server and Web-based applications in the 1990s; and Cobol is not an object-oriented language, when, in fact, it has objects galore     

Research on environmental landscape design based on virtual reality technology and deep learning

Virtual Reality (VR) provides immersive visualization and intuitive interaction. The VR is used to enable any biomedical profession to develop a deep learning (DL) model for image classification. The Deep Neural Network (DNN) models can be used as a powerful tool for data analysis, but they are also challenging to understand and develop. To make deep learning more convenient and fast operation, it have established a landscape of DNN development environment based on virtual reality. In this environment, users can move concrete objects only to build neural networks with their own hands. It automatically transforms these configurations into a trainable model and reports on the real-time test dataset. In addition to realizing the insights users are developing into DNN models, it has also visually enriched the virtual environmental landscape objects with the parts of the model. In this way bridge the gap between professionals in different disciplines, providing a new perspective on the model analysis and data interaction. This system further demonstrates that learning and visualization technologies developed in Shenzhen can benefit from integrating virtual reality.     

Effects of gendered character representation on person perception and informational social influence in computer-mediated communication

Two experiments examined (a) if the gender of a randomly assigned character would affect individuals' inferences about an anonymous partner in computer-mediated communication (CMC) and (b) how the gender inference would moderate informational social influence. In Experiment 1, participants played a trivia game on a gender-biased topic (sports vs. fashion) with their ostensible partner via computer, represented by a gender-marked cartoon character. The results showed that both men and women, despite the arbitrary nature of character assignment, categorized the partner according to the character's gender. However, the effects of the gender inference on conformity were moderated by the topic and the participant's gender. First, when the topic matched the participant's gender, there was no character effect. Second, whereas women used “expertise heuristics”, exhibiting greater conformity to the male-charactered than female-charactered partner on a masculine topic, men displayed greater conformity to the male-charactered than female-charactered partner on a feminine topic, suggesting male resistance to female influence. Using a gender-neutral topic, Experiment 2 confirmed the explanations. Although the character triggered gender-stereotypical perception of the partner, when the gender was not diagnostic of expertise, the character's gender did not affect women's conformity behavior while men nonetheless showed greater conformity to the male-charactered partner.     

虚拟培训中的虚实联动技术

针对传统培训方式的不足,提出了虚实联动的培训方式.通过构建虚拟设备,硬件可编程逻辑控制器(PLC)、PC、虚拟设备三者之间的通信,实现虚拟设备和实体设备之间的联系,并且通过现场控制系统采集实体设备运行数据,将实体设备运行和故障等信息在虚拟设备中实时表现出来,拓展了虚拟培训的新思路.以喷印机虚拟联动系统为例论述了虚拟联动技术的必要性和可行性.     

The influence of personality,sound, and content difficulty on virtual reality sickness

Virtual Reality - Virtual reality (VR) sickness is a condition that may occur during or after exposure to a virtual environment and can induce symptoms such as headache and eye strain. VR sickness...     

Three views of virtual reality: virtual environments in the USmilitary

A virtual environment is a generic, relatively low-cost real-time interactive simulation. It is shown that the US military has been a primary supporter of real-time simulation for more than 60 years, ever since the development of the Link Flight Instrument Trainer in the late 1930s. The development of flight simulation systems and head-mounted displays are reviewed. The use of virtual environments for team training, battlefield review and tactics development is discussed. Several research projects involving virtual environments and military applications are described     

Creating convivial affordances: A study of virtual world social movements

The study of technology and societal challenges is a growing area in information systems research. This paper explores how social movements can use virtual worlds to raise awareness or create safe spaces for their members. As social movements move into virtual worlds, the technical environment becomes more important. This paper presents an interpretive field study using netnographic research and empirical data from a study of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movement in World of Warcraft. This paper takes the position that an understanding of affordances is required for users to be able to create convivial outcomes to shape the use of virtual worlds for their own goals and intentions. The paper presents the concept of convivial affordances, which brings together the theories of affordances and conviviality, and suggests that social users can shape IT artefacts through a creative combination of affordances for their specific goals, and with community involvement.     

The study of virtual reality influence on the process of professional training of miners

Virtual Reality - Virtual reality technologies are actively applied for the organization of professional training in various industries, as well as in distance learning. However, numerous studies...     

Influence of virtual objects' shadows and lighting coherence on distance perception in optical see‐through augmented reality

This paper focuses on how virtual objects' shadows as well as differences in alignment between virtual and real lighting influence distance perception in optical see‐through (OST) augmented reality (AR). Four hypotheses are proposed: (H1) Participants underestimate distances in OST AR; (H2) Virtual objects' shadows improve distance judgment accuracy in OST AR; (H3) Shadows with different realism levels have different influence on distance perception in OST AR; (H4) Different levels of lighting misalignment between real and virtual lights have different influence on distance perception in OST AR scenes. Two experiments were designed with an OST head mounted display (HMD), the Microsoft HoloLens. Participants had to match the position of a virtual object displayed in the OST‐HMD with a real target. Distance judgment accuracy was recorded under the different shadows and lighting conditions. The results validate hypotheses H2 and H4 but surprisingly showed no impact of the shape of virtual shadows on distance judgment accuracy thus rejecting hypothesis H3. Regarding hypothesis H1, we detected a trend toward underestimation; given the high variance of the data, more experiments are needed to confirm this result. Moreover, the study also reveals that perceived distance errors and completion time of trials increase along with targets' distance.     

Sound synthesis and evaluation of interactive footsteps and environmental sounds rendering for virtual reality applications

We propose a system that affords real-time sound synthesis of footsteps on different materials. The system is based on microphones, which detect real footstep sounds from subjects, from which the ground reaction force (GRF) is estimated. Such GRF is used to control a sound synthesis engine based on physical models. Two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, the ability of subjects to recognize the surface they were exposed to was assessed. In the second experiment, the sound synthesis engine was enhanced with environmental sounds. Results show that, in some conditions, adding a soundscape significantly improves the recognition of the simulated environment.     

Trick the body trick the mind: avatar representation affects the perception of available action possibilities in virtual reality

Virtual Reality - In immersive Virtual Reality (VR), your brain can trick you into believing that your virtual hands are your real hands. Manipulating the representation of the body, namely the...     

Guest editor's introduction: special section on virtual reality

The four papers in this special section focus on the field of virtual reality. The papers are summarized here.     

Three views of virtual reality: an overview

Virtual reality (VR) presents a synthetically generated environment to the user through visual, auditory, and other stimuli. A VR systems's head-mounted display, stereo graphics, and direct manipulation in three dimensions are outlined. Early work in VR and major technological hurdles in the areas of tracking, display, image generation, and software support are reviewed. Research directions and potential applications of VR are discussed     

Editorial: neural computing in next-generation virtual reality technology

Neural Computing and Applications -