Virtual prototyping of automated manufacturing systems with Geometry-driven Petri nets

The design process of automated manufacturing systems typically involves physical prototypes to validate the interactions between hardware and software components. However, physical prototyping is expensive and time consuming, which often leads to insufficient opportunities for testing early during the development cycle. Our objective is to improve this situation by providing a method to develop realistic prototypes using virtual reality technology that can be applied during earlier development stages. Our approach combines a virtual reality engine capable of enacting the laws of rigid body physics with a new hybrid software modelling language to control the simulated hardware using virtual sensors and actuators as they would be present in a physical prototype. The new modelling language is called Geometry-driven Petri nets (GPN) and combines a class of timed, high-level Petri nets with data structures used in state-of-the-art VR environments. This article describes the new GPN approach, applies it to a case study of an automated manufacturing line, and compares it with related approaches.     

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.     

Online site visits using virtual collaborative spaces: A plan-reading activity on a digital building site

Site visits or field trips have been a tool utilized by construction educators to engage students in active learning, assist traditional lessons, and attain stronger and deeper student learning experiences. Nevertheless, site visits present major logistical and accessibility challenges for educational institutions and instructors, reducing the number of students that have access to the benefits of such a technique. The limitations for site visits have further broadened recently, as the reality of the COVID-19 public health concerns has forced educators to move to online course delivery quickly and the majority of site visits have been canceled. The research goal of this paper is to present construction students with opportunities to enable online location-independent site visits where contextualized learning is dangerous, unsafe, or impossible to achieve. In this project, a virtual online learning environment was created to offer the affordances that provide an in-depth learning experience through collaborative communication for a plan-reading activity in a virtual space that resembles a real-world site visit to a building facility. This virtual online learning environment helped students to experience the physical and social aspects of the site visit while getting a collaborative opportunity to practice their plan-reading skills. A comparative study with a business-as-usual condition (online delivery through Zoom®) was conducted and the students’ plan-reading performance and their feedback on the sense of presence, social presence, fatigue, and system usability was reported. The outcome of the study shows that such virtual collaborative site visits present unique opportunities to enable online delivery of spatiotemporal contexts of sites and offer an effective remote alternative when these learning opportunities are not available.     

虚拟现实三维开发服务公共技术平台研究与设计

本文阐述了虚拟现实技术是计算机技术与思维科学相结合的产物,该技术的出现为人类认识世界提供了新的认识工具,通过与虚拟环境交互,有效地拓展了认识手段和领域。阐明了现有虚拟现实技术在可视化开发过程中操作较为复杂,应用空间有其局限性,难以大范围普及。探讨分析了虚拟现实三维开发服务公共技术平台所能提供的相关技术,指出该平台建设将提供一个价格低廉,应用广泛,开发效率高的平台,有其广泛的应用领域。     

The Nintendo Wii as a tool for neurocognitive rehabilitation,training and health promotion

Health professionals have used virtual reality as an aid for several types of treatment. Given that virtual reality systems are expensive and not always available, a more accessible type of virtual reality technology is video games. The Nintendo Wii™ (NW) is a video game system that uses virtual reality technology, as defined by Deutsch, Borbely, Filler, Huhn, and Guarrera-Bowlby (2008), which may be used for health promotion. The Nintendo Wii™ also provides an opportunity for social interaction; thus, it is a promising tool with great potential for the treatment of specific disorders.The aim of this article is to evaluate the ways in which the Nintendo Wii has been used to treat specific disorders or to promote cognitive or physical improvements through a review of the literature. The results have shown that the NW is a potentially useful tool in some therapeutic treatments that can be used with people of diverse social statuses and tastes. Despite the positive initial results, further studies are required to provide a better evaluation of video game usage in therapeutic programs.     

VRML与3DS MAX 建模的互补性研究

三维建模和虚拟现实技术都是近些年来随着计算机图形学的发展而日渐成熟的新兴技术,基于互联网的虚拟现实技术已经越来越成为计算机图形学领域的新课题之一。如今应用在三维建模类的软件种类繁多,不同的软件功能也各具特色。为了快速实现三维模型建立并实现网络浏览,可根据3DS MAX提供的可视的三维建模能力,以及VRML虚拟现实三维立体网络程序语言,构造虚拟场景并实现用户与虚拟场景的网络浏览。介绍了3DS MAX与VRML语言的相关技术特点,并通过实例使用3DS MAX和VRML语言进行建模,实现虚拟交互的快捷方法。通过对VRML与3DS MAX建模的互补研究,解决了快速建模并实现虚拟场景的网络浏览。     

Adaptive Online Compression in Clouds—Making Informed Decisions in Virtual Machine Environments

Infrastructure as a Service clouds often use virtual machines to host different customers on the same physical hardware. This form of resource sharing can lead to unpredicatable performance degradations for the individual customer, especially with regard to data-intensive applications, which heavily depend on stable I/O characteristics. One traditional approach to cope with I/O fluctuations is adaptive online compression. In this paper we present a new scheme for adaptive online compression which has been explicitly designed to work in co-located virtual machine environments. In contrast to existing adaptive online compression schemes, the decision model of our approach does not rely on the system metrics CPU utilization and I/O bandwidth, which we demonstrate to be often displayed inaccurately inside XEN, KVM, and Amazon EC2-based virtual machines. Instead, it only considers the application data rate. Without requiring any calibration or training phase our adaptive compression scheme can improve the I/O throughput of virtual machines up to a factor of four as shown through extended experimental evaluations.     

基于XML的虚拟现实研究

XML是下一代的标记语言，VRML是基于WEB的虚拟现实标准，该文在研究了它们的特点的基础上，提出虚拟建模的新思路，将虚拟现实程序设计分成数据存储、计算逻辑和用户界面三个层次，并设计了两种方法实现上述建模：一种是基于XML的数据格式描述VHML数据，用VRML来实现其它功能；另一种是基于X3D的方式，之后给出用X3D进行虚拟现实的示例。     

Measuring virtual wealth in virtual worlds

This article presents pioneering research on measuring virtual wealth in an open virtual world for diagnosing the health of virtual worlds. It proved the existence of an open virtual world by proving the existence of a free choice of virtual currencies for virtual goods between distinct virtual worlds. By discussing the features of open virtual world in a circled networked organization, the article devised a virtual wealth measuring scheme, called Gross Virtual Product (GVP), for any virtual world. Based on this scheme, it suggested an accountability matrix to account for a changing virtual world regarding its total virtual wealth, profitability, user participation and happiness. To demonstrate the suitability of GVP scheme and accountability matrix, the article has conducted a case study on SecondLife.com, which showed the appropriateness of the proposed scheme and matrix. The research made in this article is very important. The proposed measuring scheme and matrix help virtual world participants perceive the possible risks of the participated virtual worlds in advance to make better decisions on virtual business.     

基于虚拟现实建模语言实现三维动态场景技术

本文是对虚拟现实建模语言建立场景的研究,提出三种实现动态交互场景的方法,并进行了分析比较,虚拟现实建模语言减小了三维动画文件的大小,提高三维动画浏览的效果.     

Java、AJAX在虚拟现实中的交互应用研究

分析了在VRML中通过Script节点或EAI使用Java语言来实现对虚拟世界的控制和场景交互的办法,指出了它们的不足之处。在此基础上,利用AJAX异步传输和数据处理的优势,提出一种基于AJAX的虚拟现实框架,并简要给出了应用实例说明。     

Use of signaling to integrate desktop virtual reality and online learning management systems

Desktop virtual reality is an emerging educational technology that offers many potential benefits for learners in online learning contexts; however, a limited body of research is available that connects current multimedia learning techniques with these new forms of media. Because most formal online learning is delivered using learning management systems, it is important to consider how to best integrate the visually complex and highly concrete desktop virtual reality into more text-driven and abstract environments such as those found in learning managements systems. This review of literature examines recent signaling literature within the context of multimedia learning and hypermedia learning. Signaling is a technique that involves using cues to emphasize important information in materials (Mayer, 2009, pp. 108–117). The analysis concluded that the depth and breadth of signaling literature is severely lacking. While certain related bodies of literature can be used to inform signaling research in desktop virtual reality and online learning management systems, no studies were found that directly address these topics. This article makes several important contributions to the body of signaling literature. First, based on what is known through literature, this article is a first attempt at examining signaling as a technique for integrating desktop virtual reality with online learning management systems. Second, this analysis resolves an important gap in literature by differentiating between signaling and cueing. Third, this article provides a survey of recent signaling-related literature and identifies specific areas that inform future work with desktop virtual reality delivered using online learning management systems. Finally, a taxonomy for classifying multimedia and hypermedia is presented as a tool for more effectively describing interventions used in signaling research.     

基于Java 3D的交互式三维动画的研究

为了建立基于工程图学的虚拟实验室,在计算机的屏幕上虚拟现实中零件的装配,笔者通过对两种虚拟语言VRML与Java 3D的分析比较,选定以Java 3D为虚拟平台,在引入.obj文件的基础上,按照现实中零件的安装和工作过程,通过设定相应的程序来实现零件的交互和装配过程,并完成了对零件交互式三维装配动画以及工作原理的论述。以压板为例,给出了一个基于Java 3D的交互式三维装配动画的例子,实现了该装配体在虚拟现实中的要求,达到了虚拟装配的目的。从而验证了该方法在现实零件装配中的预见性和优越性。     

Use of signaling to integrate desktop virtual reality and online learning management systems

Desktop virtual reality is an emerging educational technology that offers many potential benefits for learners in online learning contexts; however, a limited body of research is available that connects current multimedia learning techniques with these new forms of media. Because most formal online learning is delivered using learning management systems, it is important to consider how to best integrate the visually complex and highly concrete desktop virtual reality into more text-driven and abstract environments such as those found in learning managements systems. This review of literature examines recent signaling literature within the context of multimedia learning and hypermedia learning. Signaling is a technique that involves using cues to emphasize important information in materials (Mayer, 2009, pp. 108–117). The analysis concluded that the depth and breadth of signaling literature is severely lacking. While certain related bodies of literature can be used to inform signaling research in desktop virtual reality and online learning management systems, no studies were found that directly address these topics. This article makes several important contributions to the body of signaling literature. First, based on what is known through literature, this article is a first attempt at examining signaling as a technique for integrating desktop virtual reality with online learning management systems. Second, this analysis resolves an important gap in literature by differentiating between signaling and cueing. Third, this article provides a survey of recent signaling-related literature and identifies specific areas that inform future work with desktop virtual reality delivered using online learning management systems. Finally, a taxonomy for classifying multimedia and hypermedia is presented as a tool for more effectively describing interventions used in signaling research.     

文字识别在虚拟导游系统中的应用研究与实现

随着虚拟现实和增强现实技术的不断发展,其在旅游业中的应用也愈发广泛,在虚拟导游应用不断普及的情况下,使用文字识别技术代替传统的GPS定位和无线射频技术来实现用户的定位,具有抗干扰性强、定位准确、定位效率高以及使用范围广泛等优点。本文以校园虚拟导游系统为例,以Unity 3D为开发平台,C#为开发语言,应用基于外观信息的目标切割的算法,通过预制文字识别库以及设计文字识别过滤器,实现自然场景的文字识别,通过识别出来的文字判断当前场所的名称和位置,快速、准确地加载对应场所的场所介绍等虚拟信息。通过实验验证,本系统所使用的自然场景中文字识别技术不仅具有识别速度较快和准确率较高的特点,并且可为虚拟导游系统提供一种用户定位方法。     

Community or Colony: The Case of Online Newspapers and the Web

Although the development of relationships on the Net may be seen as "community," the increasing global presence from commercial media such as online newspapers suggest that another metaphor may be jousting for preeminence – colonization. Findings from an on-going case study of online newspapers suggest the early ideals of democratic community-building in cyberspace are encountering resistance as newspaper organizations delineate "virtual geographic space" and stake out "territory" on the web by subtly discouraging access to other sites (i.e., a type of virtual "homesteading"). Additionally, changes in the production practices of print journalists due to the emergence of electronic newspapers are discussed.     

虚拟现实技术的“嗅频”解决方案

随着计算机硬件及软件技术的飞速发展,目前计算机视频及音频技术有了重大的突破,虚拟现实(VirtualRe-ality)技术应运而生,而计算机的“嗅频”技术仍缓步不前。有分析显示,气味较图像更吸引人。该文提出的虚拟现实技术的嗅频解决方案,可以说是对传统的虚拟现实技术的必要补充。文章从分子角度探讨了基于QSAR(定量结构活性关系)的气味识别理论,介绍了SuperScent气味分析专业软件的功能实现方案,说明了用于气味识别的气味识别子系统的实现原理和用于气味发生的气味发生子系统的实现方案。     

Development of a physically behaved robot work cell in virtual reality for task teaching

Robot task teaching on a real work cell is expensive and sometimes risky. This cost and risk can be avoided by using virtual reality technology. Using the simulated environment in virtual reality (VR), the operator can practise, explore and preview the operations for possible problems that might occur during implementation. It is therefore of practical importance to build the virtual robot work cell in VR that can facilitate the study of the performance of robotic tasks such as robotic assembly. This paper describes our work in incorporating physical behaviours of virtual objects into VR for robot task teaching. To facilitate the task teaching, we developed visual and audio cues which help visualise the dynamic interactions between virtual objects. Dynamic sensing capability is incorporated in the simulated environment. A simplified force sensor is modelled and simulated. The physical behaviours of the virtual objects are simulated using physics-based approach. A virtual robot work cell is built incorporating the developed features and an example for the task teaching is given. The implementation includes view tracking using virtual camera, visual and audio rendering, and the user interface developed in the VR. The current implementation was carried out on a PC-based VR platform, with the programs developed using Watcom C++.     

悬臂式掘进机虚拟仿真平台设计

悬臂式掘进机广泛应用于煤矿井下巷道施工,掘进机的培训包括传统的书本教学方法和基于井下实际操作的训练方法,但是由于其场地和安全的局限性,无法满足训练要求.针对这一现状,利用虚拟现实技术和交互仿真技术构建了悬臂式掘进机虚拟仿真平台.该平台采用三维建模技术,使用多边形建模方法制作了悬臂式掘进机、转载机、供电系统等三维模型;运用Unity3D引擎驱动三维模型组成的虚拟场景,采用场景优化技术实时渲染出沉浸式的虚拟场景;在脚本语言C#编程环境下实现操作流程顺序控制、操作描述、三维模型驱动等,实现悬臂式掘进机虚拟仿真培训.培训结果表明,沉浸式人机交互可达到与实物培训相类似的效果,提高使用者学习和操作悬臂式掘进机的效率.     

虚拟现实技术在逆变电源监控系统中的应用

虚拟现实建模语言（VRML）是描述虚拟场景的一种标准,获得了广泛的应用.介绍了一个利用虚拟现实技术实现对逆变电源模块进行监控的系统,对VRML与外界的通信方式以及与数据库的连接进行了研究.利用VRML构建了具有良好交互性的三维场景,并利用Java和VRML通信,实现了场景从数据库中实时获取电源状态参数,在此基础上完成了来自逆变电源的动态数据与虚拟三维模型的动态交互,实现了通过虚拟电源控制柜对逆变电源模块的开启和关闭、电源设备运行数据的实时显示.