Presence within the virtual reality environment of the international space station

Virtual Reality - Virtual Reality (VR) is becoming an increasingly effective and powerful medium for learning, especially when applied to environments such as the International Space Station (ISS)...     

A method to measure the uniformity of the virtual image distance in an augmented reality or virtual reality device

The virtual image distance in an augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) device is an important factor in determining its performance. In this paper, a method for measuring the virtual image distance and its uniformity is proposed. The setup for measurement consists of a two-dimensional spatial sensor array on the translational stage and a pinhole array plate placed in front of the AR or VR device. As the distance between the pinhole plate and the two-dimensional spatial sensor array were changed, the positions of the rays through each pinhole were measured by a two-dimensional spatial sensor array. The ray trajectories through each pinhole were obtained by fitting these positions to straight lines. The relative distances between these ray trajectories were calculated with respect to the distance from the pinhole plate. This method is effective for measuring the uniformity, such as the azimuthal dependence of the virtual image distance or the dependence of the virtual image distance on the distance from the optical axis of the VR lens.     

Presence and simulator sickness predict the usability of a virtual reality attention task

Virtual Reality - Attention is the ability to actively process specific information within one’s environment over longer periods of time while disregarding other details. Attention is an...     

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     

Antecedents of an experienced sense of virtual community

Sense of virtual community (SOVC) reflects the feeling that individual members have of belonging to an online social group. Yet there is a lack of investigation focusing on its individual-level antecedents. We argue that in order to enhance understanding of how SOVC develops we first need to distinguish between the individual expectations, actions, and the resulting community-related feelings. Drawing upon the uses and gratifications approach, we explore the community members’ expected benefits, their linkages with different types of community participation and consequently with the experienced SOVC. We tested the hypotheses on a sample of 395 members of a virtual community hosted by a Finnish business newspaper. The findings suggest that both forms of participation – reading and posting messages – have a positive impact on SOVC, but the expected benefits differ. Participation by reading messages is mainly driven by the expectation of cognitive benefits, while posting messages seems to be largely driven by the anticipation of both social and personal integrative benefits. Our study contributes by providing a refined SOVC conceptualization and operationalization for virtual-community research, and by opening up the individual-level actions that build up a sense of virtual community.     

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.     

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     

Applying artificial intelligence to virtual reality: Intelligent virtual environments

Research into virtual environments on the one hand and artificial intelligence and artificial life on the other has largely been carried out by two different groups of people with different preoccupation and interests, but some convergence is now apparent between the two fields. Applications in which activity independent of the user takes place- involving crowds or other agents- are beginning to be tackled, while synthetic agents, virtual humans, and computer pets are all areas in which techniques from the two fields require strong integration. The two communities have much to learn from each other if wheels are not to be reinvented on both sides. This paper reviews the issues arising from combining artificial intelligence and artificial life techniques with those of virtual environments to produce just such intelligent virtual environments. The discussion is illustrated with examples that include environments providing knowledge to direct or assist the user rather than relying entirely on the user's knowledge and skills, those in which the user is represented by a partially autonomous avatar, those containing intelligent agents separate from the user, and many others from both sides of the area.     

Applying Virtual Reality to Molecular Graphics System

Mlecular graphics can be thought of as a window to the computer through which the chemist expresses ideas for computational evaluation and receives results in an understandable form.Furthermore,with beautiful graphic images it can give out the realistic molecular model like a real thing in real world.Molecule has various properties including volume,electronic,van der waals forces,etc.These properties are very important to understand the molecular world.So if the virtual reality tools are used,then the imaginary world can be studied intuitively by touching and feeling a tremendous amount of data.Computational chemistry generates such amount of molecular property data through supercomputing with molecular simulation experiment.One of the objects to investigate the molecular world is to understand the intermolecular interaction such as drug-receptor interaction.Another thing is to measure the geometrical data in molecular architecture.Virtual reality system provides the easiest way to meet these objects.This kind of simple system changes a numerical data set,which is very difficults to deal with,into a visible and understandable data set.Recently two functions of such a system were improved to get an insight into biomolecular interaction.The first one is a real time force generation during navigation in macromolecular environment.An cylindrical arrow shows the magnitude and direction of molecular force.The second one is to see a molecular vibration such as a concerted motion of the binding site in protein molecule.So one can understand th molecular shape change for drugreceptor docking procedure.But some problems which are difficult to solve still remain.     

From visual simulation to virtual reality to games

During the past decades, the virtual reality community has based its development on a synthesis of earlier work in interactive 3D graphics, user interfaces, and visual simulation. Currently, the VR field is transitioning into work influenced by video games. Because much of the research and development being conducted in the games community parallels the VR community's efforts, it has the potential to affect a greater audience. Given these trends, VR researchers who want their work to remain relevant must realign to focus on game research and development. Leveraging technology from the visual simulation and virtual reality communities, serious games provide a delivery system for organizational video game instruction and training.     

Seamless interaction in virtual reality

Jot is a novel research interface for virtual reality modeling. This system seamlessly integrates and applies a variety of virtual and physical tools, each customized for specific tasks. The Jot interface not only moves smoothly from one tool to another but also physically and cognitively matches individual tools to the tasks they perform. In particular, we exploit the notion that gestural interaction is more direct, in many cases, than traditional widget based interaction. We also respect the time tested observation that some operations-even conceptually three dimensional ones-are better performed with 1D or 2D input devices, whereas other operations are more naturally performed using stereoscopic views, higher DOF input devices, or both. Ultimately we strive for a 3D modeling system with an interface as transparent as the interaction afforded by a pencil and a sheet of paper. For example, the system should facilitate the tasks of drawing and erasing and provide an easy transition between the two. Jot emerged from our previous work on a mouse based system, called Sketch, for gesturally creating imprecise 3D models. Jot extends Sketch's functionality to a wider spectrum of modeling, from concept design to detailed feature based parametric parts. Jot also extends the interaction in Sketch to better support individual modeling tasks. We extended Sketch's gestural framework to integrate interface components ranging from traditional desktop interface widgets to context sensitive gestures to direct manipulation techniques originally designed for immersive VR     

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     

Japanese activities in virtual reality

Most virtual reality hardware in Japan has been imported from the US, and the large-scale applications have focused on games, where Sega Enterprises and Nintendo remain the market leaders. In addition to its successful home video and arcade machines businesses, Sega is moving aggressively into the amusement-park ride market. Outside these markets, Matsushita plans to release three commercial products in spring 1994. One is an immersive system for product showrooms to help Japanese home owners visualize new kitchens before ordering them. Another is a massage chair that uses VR images and sound to help relax users. The third is an exercise bicycle that lets the user cycle through a 3D virtual world while exercising. Many Japanese companies are interested in VR technology as a problem-solving tool. They are making progress in its use in equipment operation. They also realize that the ability to operate devices intuitively by ordinary gesture-like motions can be exploited in many practical fields. This ability could make human-machine interfaces easier, even if these interfaces fall short of outright VR. This article reviews a few recent industry and academic research projects. The current worldwide recession has flattened the overall rate of growth in Japanese research and development spending. Nevertheless, Japan reportedly has approximately 20 major VR research projects, mostly emphasizing communication. Japanese emphases on long-term planning and on targeting development toward specific products are their strengths in this emerging technology     

European activities in virtual reality

We survey European activities in virtual reality, with an emphasis on selected efforts in architecture and sound, telepresence, scientific visualization, simulation, software design, and entertainment. This article surveys European activities and funding for VR with two caveats: First, nearly a year separates writing and publication. For most scientific fields, this publication delay for survey material would be minimal: for virtual reality, significant changes might have since occurred in some programs. We took advantage of the revision period to upgrade our information and the references as much as possible. Second, some long standing, significant European efforts go unmentioned as outside the scope of our short survey or as duplicates of others included. Despite the limitations, this sampling of Europe's leading efforts collectively gives an accurate snapshot of current European activity     

Public speaking in virtual reality: facing an audience of avatars

What happens when someone talks in public to an audience they know to be entirely computer generated-to an audience of avatars? If the virtual audience seems attentive, well-behaved, and interested, if they show positive facial expressions with complimentary actions such as clapping and nodding, does the speaker infer correspondingly positive evaluations of performance and show fewer signs of anxiety? On the other hand, if the audience seems hostile, disinterested, and visibly bored, if they have negative facial expressions and exhibit reactions such as head-shaking, loud yawning, turning away, falling asleep, and walking out, does the speaker infer correspondingly negative evaluations of performance and show more signs of anxiety? We set out to study this question during the summer of 1998. We designed a virtual public speaking scenario, followed by an experimental study. We wanted mainly to explore the effectiveness of virtual environments (VEs) in psychotherapy for social phobias. Rather than plunge straight in and design a virtual reality therapy tool, we first tackled the question of whether real people's emotional responses are appropriate to the behavior of the virtual people with whom they may interact. The project used DIVE (Distributive Interactive Virtual Environment) as the basis for constructing a working prototype of a virtual public speaking simulation. We constructed as a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) model, a virtual seminar room that matched the actual seminar room in which subjects completed their various questionnaires and met with the experimenters     

Memory for a virtual reality experience in children and adults according to image quality,emotion, and sense of presence

Virtual Reality - Numerous studies have explored the effects of virtual reality (VR) on adults’ cognition. Little is known, however, of these effects in children. The aim of this study was to...     

Emotion recognition using facial expressions in an immersive virtual reality application

Virtual Reality - Facial expression recognition (FER) is an important method to study and distinguish human emotions. In the virtual reality (VR) context, people’s emotions are instantly and...     

From sensory substitute technology to virtual reality research

This paper describes research into sensory substitutes for the disabled, and proposes one basic research approach to assistance technology. It also reports on how the technology is related to virtual reality research.     

PainDroid: an android-based virtual reality application for pain assessment

Earlier studies in the field of pain research suggest that little efficient intervention currently exists in response to the exponential increase in the prevalence of pain. In this paper, we present an Android application (PainDroid) with multimodal functionality that could be enhanced with Virtual Reality (VR) technology, which has been designed for the purpose of improving the assessment of this notoriously difficult medical concern. PainDroid has been evaluated for its usability and acceptability with a pilot group of potential users and clinicians, with initial results suggesting that it can be an effective and usable tool for improving the assessment of pain. Participant experiences indicated that the application was easy to use and the potential of the application was similarly appreciated by the clinicians involved in the evaluation. Our findings may be of considerable interest to healthcare providers, policy makers, and other parties that might be actively involved in the area of pain and VR research.     

Experiencing immersive virtual reality in museums

Virtual Reality (VR) has been regarded as a highly effective technology that enables people to gain enjoyable and immersive information about museum collections. Drawing from the four realms of the experience economy, we assume absorptive experiences influence immersive experiences, overall museum VR tour experience, and intention to visit a museum. The results show that all the hypotheses are supported. Furthermore, we compared and tested the proposed model and its rival model (postulating the direct influence of the four realms of the experience economy on museum VR experience) and found that the proposed model is better than the rival model.