Virtual reality design techniques for web-based historical reconstructions

Due to increases in personal computer power and available bandwidths, 3D worlds are becoming increasingly accessible over the Internet, allowing viewers to freely explore virtual constructed worlds. However, even with advances in computing power and bandwidths, creating realistic 3D worlds which are fast downloading and are pleasurable to navigate around requires a number of design techniques to be employed. The aim of this paper is to describe the design techniques used in a redesign of a web-based virtual reality reconstruction of an historical site describing how different techniques can be used to optimise download times yet retain historical realism. The techniques and processes can be used as a guide by any designer to help create lightweight realistic virtual models.     

Dwelling in Second Life? A phenomenological evaluation of online virtual worlds

In previous research on virtual worlds, the question of whether virtual space can be evaluated just like “real world” space has not been fully addressed. This paper challenges the perceived commonsensical set of assumptions through which virtual world activities are usually unpacked and proposes a new method of evaluating virtual worlds based on Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology. Various focus groups conducted in the virtual world Second Life confirmed that a phenomenological paradigm is more appropriate to fully make sense of and leverage this new medium. Besides questioning the relevancy of dealing with virtual worlds as if they were parallel spaces, this paper, by leveraging a new conceptualization of virtual worlds, also offers suggestions for new online qualitative methodologies.     

Virtual worlds in competitive contexts: Analyzing eSports consumer needs

More recently, 3D graphical environments on the Internet, that is virtual worlds, have moved to the center of scientific interest. Since virtual worlds are suggested to mold social computing, research has predominately focused on collaborative virtual worlds. Yet, virtual worlds increasingly move to competitive environments leaving operating businesses with the question as to what to offer in order to fulfill customers’ needs. To close this knowledge gap, we examine competitive virtual worlds in terms of eSports services intrinsically tying cooperation and competition; we illuminate competitive and hedonic need gratifications of continuous eSports use. We apply Uses and Gratifications theory reporting on ten in-depth expert interviews as well as survey data collected from 360 eSports players. We reveal that both competitive (competition and challenge) and hedonic need gratifications (escapism) drive continuous eSports use.     

Modeling Methods for Reusable and Interoperable Virtual Entities in Multimedia Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds are facing several challenges to become a mature technology commonly used in their numerous potential applications such as games, training, education, health and collaborative work. Main challenges are the introduction of multimedia in virtual worlds and the decrease of the cost and the required time for their design, which remains an empirical process. This paper proposes a methodology for introducing multimedia and decreasing the cost and needed time. The main interest of the proposed methodology is to provide virtual worlds with multimedia, interoperability and reusability properties. Interoperability enables virtual entities belonging to virtual worlds independently designed (i.e., no prior explicit agreement exists between theirs respective designers) to interact with each others. Reusability enables virtual worlds designers to use a virtual entity pattern initially designed for a virtual world A to be used in the design of a new virtual world B. The originality of this methodology relies on multiagent concepts and learning techniques for avoiding prior complex specifications tasks to achieve interoperability and reusability of multimedia virtual entities in virtual worlds.     

基于参数的虚拟仪器设计与实现

针对虚拟仪器功能众多，以及使用LabVIEW设计大型虚拟仪器软件困难的特点，从虚拟仪器功能组织和调度的角度提出了一种基于参数的虚拟仪器软件模型，该模型对于设计功能繁多、控制复杂的虚拟仪器具有一定的指导意义。同时，介绍了该模型的一种基于数据库、菜单和VI Server技术的实现方法，并以此模型实际设计了一台虚拟多功能信号分析仪，收到了良好的效果。     

Increasing student engagement through virtual interactions: How?

Our ongoing research is focusing on identifying and taxonomising the elements and the factors that affect learner engagement with virtual worlds when hybrid virtual learning models are used. Our main hypothesis links learner engagement with interactions, both in the virtual world and in the physical classroom. In order to examine this subject, there is an elaboration on and consideration of aspects such as the learners’ prior experiences in the use of virtual worlds, their preconceptions about using them as a learning tool and the impact that the instructional designers’ choices have on enhancing the opportunities for interactions. In this paper, we examine the impact that the orientation process has on university students who study computer science and have almost no experience in the use of virtual worlds. Our findings suggest that the orientation process contributed positively to students’ smooth induction and that resulted in having meaningful and engaging interactions. Furthermore, students’ simultaneous coexistence in both environments eliminated the drawbacks of each educational approach and broadened the network of interactions.     

High-level interpretation in virtual environments

As virtual environments applications become more complex, there is a need to interpret user interaction in terms of high-level concepts. In this paper, the relations between conceptual representations of actions and their physical simulation in virtual worlds is investigated. A model inspired fromnatural language processing (NLP) research in the linguistic interpretation of dynamic scenes has been developed. The experiments are based on real-time animation software, which has been enhanced with a symbolic information processing layer, originally developed for NLP-based animation. We report the implementation of a high-level interpretation module that is able to recognize complex actions fromlow-level physical events in the virtual world and discuss its performance as well as directions for further developments.     

I became an attractive person in the virtual world: Users’ identification with virtual communities and avatars

A number of studies have examined virtual worlds, which can facilitate knowledge sharing, education, and enjoyment, among others. However, no study has provided an insightful research model for evaluating virtual worlds. This study suggests that users’ identification with virtual communities and avatars plays a critical role in the construction of attractive virtual worlds. The proposed model measures the level of the user’s identification with virtual communities, through which the user builds his or her trust in other community members. In addition, the study suggests that users’ identification with avatars is an important element of their satisfaction with virtual worlds. The results indicate that users’ identification with virtual communities as well as avatars can enhance their efficacy and trust and thus facilitate their sustained use of virtual services. The results have important theoretical and practical implications.     

一个基于Java3D的协同虚拟环境工作平台

协同虚拟环境为多用户构造一个可以沉浸其中漫游的虚拟空间,并支持用户之间的协同活动。在军事模拟、远程教育、娱乐等领域有广泛的应用。Java3D是一种高层3D API,可用于快速构建虚拟现实系统。尝试用Java3D技术构造一个协同虚拟环境工作平台原型系统,重点介绍了开发中的技术问题, 讨论了场景建模、消息通信、人机交互、化身控制、白板管理和视频显示等主要功能,并给出了一些具有较高参考价值的代码。     

Spatial proximity to others determines how humans inhabit virtual worlds

Highly immersive three-dimensional virtual worlds have emerged as a popular medium for human social interactions. These environments enable multimodal sensory engagement and provide an immersive graphical representation of physical space where users can interact via avatars. However, when compared to two-dimensional virtual settings such as chats, virtual worlds impose constraints on social interactions due to the physical distance between individuals. Using the popular platform of Second Life as a model, we examined how humans manage this interindividual distance in virtual worlds. Taking advantage of methods developed in population ecology, we investigated how avatars are distributed in relation to each other to populate a virtual world. Our results revealed a striking dichotomy in the spatial relationships between avatars. Considerable aggregation, largely independent of population density, was observed alongside surprisingly marked physical isolation. These findings demonstrate that the spatial proximity to others determines how humans inhabit virtual worlds.     

Virtual worlds as knowledge management platform – a practice‐perspective

Virtual worlds, as electronic environments where individuals can interact in a realistic manner in form of avatars, are increasingly used by gamers, consumers and employees. Therefore, they provide opportunities for reinventing business processes. Especially, effective knowledge management (KM) requires the use of appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) as well as social interaction. Emerging virtual worlds enable new ways to support knowledge and knowing processes because these virtual environments consider social aspects that are necessary for knowledge creating and knowledge sharing processes. Thus, collaboration in virtual worlds resembles real‐life activities. In this paper, we shed light on the use of Second Life (SL) as a KM platform in a real‐life setting. To explore the potential and current usage of virtual worlds for knowledge and knowing activities, we conducted a qualitative study at IBM. We interviewed IBM employees belonging to a special workgroup called ‘Web 2.0/virtual worlds’ in order to gain experience in generating and exchanging knowledge by virtually collaborating and interacting. Our results show that virtual worlds – if they are able to overcome problems like platform stability, user interface or security issues – bear the potential to serve as a KM platform. They facilitate global and simultaneous interaction, create a common context for collaboration, combine different tools for communication and enhance knowledge and knowing processes.     

Understanding use continuance in virtual worlds: Empirical test of a research model

We decided to examine why people continue to use virtual worlds by studying a real example: the popular virtual world of Second Life. This involved building and testing a model of virtual worlds based on habit from both the habit/automaticity and instant automaticity perspectives, the latter based on utilitarian and hedonic goals. The results (for a sample of 339 users) suggested that continuance intention for the virtual world was driven by perceived usefulness, enjoyment, and both perspectives of automatic behavior, which together provide considerable explanatory power for both habit and continuance intention. We conclude with implications for practice in this new area of inquiry.     

The design space of dynamic interactive virtual environments

Virtual environments have become a key component of many fields and the critical component of virtual reality applications. Due to their virtual nature, they can accommodate an infinite number of possibilities. A theoretical work is presented, which decomposes those innumerous possibilities into concepts to help clarify the vast design space and provide insights into future applied research. We propose that what makes environments interesting and engaging is having worlds that are both active and reactive. This article explores the manifestations of those actions and reactions in what we term: dynamic components and interactions. We term worlds containing these dynamic interactive virtual environments (DIVE). An analysis of each component time was performed, with the purpose of providing a theoretical understanding of the respective design spaces. Initially, we collected the myriad possibilities of each component, e.g., the possible kinds of interactions. We point to examples throughout the field to ground and explain concepts presented. We then categorized of each area into taxonomies. The result of the analyses provides insights into the design space of virtual environments, exposes several avenues of research that are yet underexplored, and provides better understandings of ways in which DIVE creation can be supported.     

Eliciting tacit knowledge about requirement analysis with a Grammar-targeted Interview Method (GIM)

The assumption that tacit knowledge cannot be articulated remains dominant in knowledge elicitation. This paper, however, claims that linguistic theory does not support such a position and that language should not be factored out of accounts of tacit knowledge. We argue that Polanyi's (1966, p. 4) widely cited notion that ‘we know more than we can tell’ uses a folk model of language. This model does not acknowledge the linguistic patterns that competent language speakers deploy without direct awareness. This paper draws upon Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to propose a Grammar-targeted Interview Method (GIM). The GIM uses SFL to unpack linguistic patterning, which we refer to as ‘under-representation’, to reveal tacit assumptions. It is a strategy that can be applied within a traditional interview method when the interviewer feels that there is confusion resulting from assumptions, such as those often embedded in terminology, that have not been directly expressed. This paper reports findings from an empirical study of tacit knowledge about requirements analysis in a Content Management System redevelopment. We compared the GIM with a Content-motivated Interview Method (CMIM) and show that, when the GIM is used, interviewees respond with less nominalised talk, that is the less nominalised content has more meaning unpacked as verbs and agents rather than hidden tacitly in nouns.     

Visualizing language evolution as an emergent phenomenon based on biological evolution and learning

From the perspective of artificial life, language can be viewed as a complex adaptive system emerging from linguistic interactions between individuals. Language and the human brain have evolved in parallel and by interacting with each other. In this study, we propose a model of language evolution based on biological evolution and learning. In our model, the linguistic space is expressed in the polar coordinate system in which each possible language is expressed as a point. We conduct evolutionary experiments based on this model, and visualize the results in linguistic space. The distribution trajectory of innate linguistic abilities shows the diversification and complexity of language growth. In the extended experiment, in which the angular coordinates represent the additional effect of the cost of plasticity, we observe a general tendency that the cost of plasticity evolves to become smaller. However, it never evolves to be zero, which might suggest that some cost of plasticity producing the Baldwin effect is adaptive in language evolution.     

A new approach to fuzzy modeling and control of discrete-time systems

We present a new approach to fuzzy modeling and control of discrete-time systems which is based on the formulation of a novel state-space representation using the hyperbolic tangent function. The new representation, designated the hyperbolic model, combines the advantages of fuzzy system theory and classical control theory. On the one hand, the hyperbolic model is easily derived from a set of Mamdani-type fuzzy rules. On the other hand, classical control theory can be applied to design controllers for the hyperbolic model that not only guarantee stability and robustness but are themselves equivalent to a set of Mamdani-type fuzzy rules. Thus, this new approach combines the best of two worlds. It enables linguistic interpretability of both the model and the controller, and guarantees closed-loop stability and robustness.     

Virtually homosexual: Technoromanticism,demarginalisation and identity formation among homosexual males

‘Coming out’ is a key stage in the identity formation process for the homosexual male when the individual discloses his homosexual status to himself and others. Although previous research has indicated that homosexual men often use the Internet and computer-mediated communication (CMC) during the identity formation process to discover and develop their sexual and self-identities, studies to date have focused on their use of text-based CMC with scant attention paid to experiences within virtual worlds. This study explored whether homosexual males use virtual worlds in the sexual identity formation process and, specifically, the applicability of technoromanticism within this context. Qualitative retrospective biographical interviews were undertaken with 12 self-selected individuals who had engaged with virtual worlds before or during their sexual identity development. The CASE model (Community, Anonymity, Sexual experimentation, and Escape) was developed to characterise the key themes emerging from the data and illustrate the enactment of technoromanticism by homosexual males within virtual worlds. It is concluded that technoromanticism in virtual worlds can only have a profound impact on individuals if the individual’s personal development online is transferred offline as there is a potential to become toxically immersed and thus stall or halt the identity development process altogether.     

Understanding users’ motivations to engage in virtual worlds: A multipurpose model and empirical testing

Despite the growth and commercial potential of virtual worlds, relatively little is known about what drives users’ motivations to engage in virtual worlds. This paper proposes and empirically tests a conceptual model aimed at filling this research gap. Given the multipurpose nature of virtual words the model integrates extrinsic and intrinsic motivation as behavioral determinants. By making use of the literature on information system value and motivation theory four important system-specific virtual world characteristics (economic value, ease of use, escapism, visual attractiveness) are added as motivational drivers. Using structural equation modeling on a sample of 846 users of the virtual world Second Life the hypotheses were tested. The results support the model; they confirm the role of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation as behavioral determinants and show how and to what extent the four system-specific elements function as motivational basis. Implications for research and practice are discussed.