Navigation in desktop virtual environments: an evaluation and recommendations for supporting usability

Virtual reality (VR) can provide useful tools for a variety of applications. However, for these tools to be effective, they must be easy to use. In virtual environments (VEs), usability is impaired by poorly designed navigation systems. Insufficient realism and missing physiological orientation and motion cues impair spatial learning in desktop VEs. Capabilities for navigation in a VE are far more varied than in reality; so much greater flexibility can be offered, but designing VEs with too many options can overwhelm users. To assist designers in building effective, usable navigation systems for VEs, navigation techniques must be evaluated to identify which features actually support users in accomplishing their tasks and which features create unnecessary problems.This study evaluates navigation in two different VEs to develop recommendations for the design of navigation systems in desktop VEs. The study consists of an objective assessment of navigation control dynamics, a guideline-based evaluation and a review of data collected during two experimental studies. The findings indicate that real-world constraints, specialised navigation techniques and feedback regarding location and direction of travel are needed to support navigation in desktop VEs.     

一个基于Web的网络虚拟现实系统的设计与实现

虚拟现实技术发展很快,有广泛的工业和商业应用。网络虚拟现实技术已越来越为工业制造业所关注,虚拟制造环境(VME)的一个主要用途是在线可视化和对3D信息的协作控制,这需要实时数据传输的支持。为了满足基于Internet的VE通信需求,特别是为满足虚拟制造和协作设计和控制,该文设计并实现了一个支持网络虚拟设计和制造的网络虚拟现实系统,此系统用MMS协议实现VE通信,并将工业控制服务集成于基于Internet的虚拟环境中。     

Walk-up VR: virtual reality beyond projection screens

Today, VR research and development efforts often focus on the continual innovation of interaction styles and metaphors for virtual environments (VEs). New tools and interaction devices aim to increase the immersive experience rather than support seamless integration with real work scenarios. Even though users may soon perceive odours within VEs, real, task-oriented interaction within these environments will continue to lag behind. Combining these efforts can result in new user interfaces that reduce the cumbersome barriers prevalent in VEs today, finally unleashing the latent impact of this technology in everyday life. Implementing this vision requires an interdisciplinary and applied approach to integrate VR into the workplace. Mixed-reality display capabilities, useful multimodal interaction and perceptual, intuitive interfaces are major components of such an application-oriented and human-centered approach, for which we coined the term walk-up VR. The paper discusses augmented and virtual reality as contributing technologies     

Virtual reality sports auxiliary training system based on embedded system and computer technology

Virtual Reality technology, the complex environment can be a simulated, traditional sports courses at the stadium, equipment, it is due to limitations such as safety, to provide scientific and accurate teaching and learning's, a complex by visualizing the theoretical knowledge in the abstract sport, you can get more technical knowledge. Compared to the traditional physical education activities, simulate sports scene only by generating VR panoramas that cannot be virtual reality technology. Based on this, you can improve the enthusiasm and athletic ability of students effectively. Because of immaturity and high-priced equipment of VR technology, at present, people that education is using unpopular making, carefully virtual reality technology. In this context, we can apply virtual reality technology to sports training, which can obtain more effective training effect. In the first part of this paper, we talk about the research of virtual reality panorama, the second part about the research of virtual reality video, the third part about the application of virtual reality in physical education teaching, and the fourth part is the conclusion and investigation process. In the study, VR, as a new technology, found that you have the prospect of a wide range of applications. As long as it has been used in scientific and rational, you can VR is to promote the level of improvement and sports greatly sports scene. Users can increase users' interest; it can be immersed in a variety of preset virtual locations. Therefore, in the VR device, which allows the user to improve the experience of the VR device, you can interact well in a virtual scene.     

Virtual and interactive environments for work of the future

Virtual reality (VR) systems and the virtual environments (VEs) experienced within them have presented challenges to human computer interaction over many years. The sheer range of different interfaces which might be experienced and of different behaviours which might be exhibited have caused difficulties in general understanding of participants’ performance within VR/VE and in providing coherent guidance for designers. We have recently completed a European Information Society Technologies (IST) project, Virtual and Interactive Environments for Workplaces of the Future (VIEW of the Future), which has made great strides in developing improved VR systems and interaction concepts and devices, based upon good understanding of participation in VEs. Particular emphasis in the VIEW of the Future project has been upon mobility and multiple active collaboration in use of VR/VE. This paper introduces a special issue devoted to this project and overviews the project as a whole. In doing so it also reviews some of the human factors issues defined for VR/VE over the years and the contribution of VIEW of the Future to addressing these.     

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.     

Multi-modal virtual environments for education with haptic and olfactory feedback

It has been suggested that immersive virtual reality (VR) technology allows knowledge-building experiences and in this way provides an alternative educational process. Important key features of constructivist educational computer-based environments for science teaching and learning, include interaction, size, transduction and reification. Indeed, multi-sensory VR technology suits very well the needs of sciences that require a higher level of visualization and interaction. Haptics that refers to physical interactions with virtual environments (VEs) may be coupled with other sensory modalities such as vision and audition but are hardly ever associated with other feedback channels, such as olfactory feedback. A survey of theory and existing VEs including haptic or olfactory feedback, especially in the field of education is provided. Our multi-modal human-scale VE VIREPSE (virtual reality platform for simulation and experimentation) that provides haptic interaction using a string-based interface called SPIDAR (space interface device for artificial reality), olfactory and auditory feedbacks is described. An application that allows students experiencing the abstract concept of the Bohr atomic model and the quantization of the energy levels has been developed. Different configurations that support interaction, size and reification through the use of immersive and multi-modal (visual, haptic, auditory and olfactory) feedback are proposed for further evaluation. Haptic interaction is achieved using different techniques ranging from desktop pseudo-haptic feedback to human-scale haptic interaction. Olfactory information is provided using different fan-based olfactory displays (ODs). Significance of developing such multi-modal VEs for education is discussed.     

Myriad: scalable VR via peer‐to‐peer connectivity,PC clustering,and transient inconsistency

Distributed scene graphs are important in virtual reality, both in collaborative virtual environments and in cluster rendering. Modern scalable visualization systems have high local throughput, but collaborative virtual environments (VEs) over a wide‐area network (WAN) share data at much lower rates. This complicates the use of one scene graph across the whole application. Myriad is an extension of the Syzygy VR toolkit in which individual scene graphs form a peer‐to‐peer network. Myriad connections filter scene graph updates and create flexible relationships between nodes of the scene graph. Myriad's sharing is fine‐grained: the properties of individual scene graph nodes to share are dynamically specified (in C++ or Python). Myriad permits transient inconsistency, relaxing resource requirements in collaborative VEs. A test application, WorldWideCrowd, demonstrates collaborative prototyping of a 300‐avatar crowd animation viewed on two PC‐cluster displays and edited on low‐powered laptops, desktops, and over a WAN. We have further used our framework to facilitate collaborative educational experiences and as a vehicle for undergraduates to experiment with shared virtual worlds. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

虚拟现实软件研究

随着社会生产力和科学技术的不断发展,各行各业对虚拟现实技术及其开发软件的需求日益旺盛。人们对虚拟现实及其系统的研究日益重视。虚拟现实软件种类繁多,功能各异,这给虚拟现实系统开发者带来了困难。文中首先对国内外常用虚拟现实软件的功能和特点进行了分析,并对这些软件的优缺点进行了分析比较,旨在为进行虚拟现实系统软件开发的人员开发虚拟现实系统提供参考。其次,在此基础上,针对当今虚拟现实开发软件存在的缺点,指出了虚拟现实软件未来的发展方向。     

Teleporting through virtual environments: benefits of navigational feedback and practice

Virtual Reality - Virtual environments (VEs) can be infinitely large, but movement of the virtual reality (VR) user is constrained by the surrounding real environment. Teleporting has become a...     

虚拟现实技术在微机电系统中的应用

该文根据虚拟现实技术的内涵、主要特征和相关技术，按照微机电系统的特点和发展目标，研究微机电系统对虚拟现实技术的需求及其应用，研究虚拟现实技术与微机电系统的交叉融合及互动发展，提出将虚拟现实技术应用于微机电系统的研究、设计、教学、培训；提出将微机电系统应用于虚拟现实系统中。     

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     

基于Web的虚拟展厅的设计与实现

当前的VR标准，可以描述一个被动的VR系统，即系统应用VR技术来实现一些预先设计的3D内容的可视化。然而，现实中的一个挑战在于构造主动VR应用，这种应用允许动态合成虚拟场景。为了能构造主动VR应用，该文结合目前工作描述了网络环境下虚拟展览厅系统，提出虚拟世界的数据库建模方法。文中阐述了该系统的用途和功能，给出了系统的结构模型等。     

VR 技术在虚拟旅游的应用研究

本文对虚拟现实技术与旅游结合的研究背景做了介绍,首先对VR 虚拟现实旅游技术概念进行了分析,对VR 技术在我国旅游方面的应用现状进行了描述,其次对VR 虚拟现实旅游技术在旅游业的发展路径及探索进行了研究,从而满 足用户的不同旅游体验。     

Driving simulation: challenges for VR technology

Virtual driving environments represent a challenging test for virtual reality technology. We present an overview of our work on the problems of scenario and scene modeling for virtual environments (VEs) in the context of the Iowa Driving Simulator (IDS). The requirements of driving simulation-a deterministic real-time software system that integrates components for user interaction, simulation, and scenario and scene modeling-make it a valuable proving ground for VE technologies. The goal of our research is not simply to improve driving simulation, but to develop technology that benefits a wide variety of VE applications. For example, our work on authoring high-fidelity VE databases and on directable scenarios populated with believable agents also targets applications involving interaction with simulated, walking humans and training in the operation of complex machinery. This work has benefited greatly from the experience of developing components for a full-scale operational VE system like IDS, and we believe that many other proposed VE technologies would similarly benefit from such real-world testing     

Augmenting elementary school education with VR

At the University of Illinois at Chicago's Electronic Visualization Laboratory, we use virtual reality technology to complement real-world experiences rather than replace them. For more than two years, we've been deploying ImmersaDesk applications in a Chicago-area elementary school. We want to know whether these virtual environments (VEs) help children make sense of mathematics and scientific phenomena. If so, can educators adapt them to the realities of elementary school learning and teaching? Our experience indicates that VR can successfully augment scientific education as well as help to equalize the learning environment by engaging students of all levels     

虚拟现实技术在柔性上肢康复机器人中的应用

根据末端牵引式和外骨骼式上肢康复机器人的特性,研制了一种新型的柔性上肢康复机器人。机器人的康复训练系统结合了主动和被动模式的要素,将虚拟现实（VR）技术引入上肢康复机器人,通过现实环境中的光学3D位置捕获以及VR环境中的3D位置感知,设计了虚拟动态模型交互性节点和碰撞检测实验,实现虚拟现实交互,提高虚拟模型运动实时效果和上肢康复训练精度。VR和新颖的康复机器人的集成为具有特定任务的患者提供了有效的训练。     

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.     

Immersive virtual reality as support for the mental health of elderly women: a randomized controlled trial

Virtual Reality - Several forms of virtual reality (VR) have shown promise in treating mental disorders. However, there is a lack of research investigating the use of multicomponent immersive VR....