Evaluating relative impact of virtual reality system variables on architectural design comprehension and presence - A variable-centered approach using fractional factorial experiment

The relative contributions of five variables (Stereoscopy, screen size, field of view, level of realism and level of detail) of virtual reality systems on spatial comprehension and presence are evaluated here. Using a variable-centered approach instead of an object-centric view as its theoretical basis, the contributions of these five variables and their two-way interactions are estimated through a 25-1 fractional factorial experiment (screening design) of resolution V with 84 subjects. The experiment design, procedure, measures used, creation of scales and indices, results of statistical analysis, their meaning and agenda for future research are elaborated.

Proceedings of the 10th international conference on disability, virtual reality and associated technologies (ICDVRAT 2014)

The proceedings of the conference

Cognitive and environmental factors influencing the process of spatial knowledge acquisition within virtual reality environments

As the fidelity of virtual environments (VE) continues to increase, the possibility of using them as training platforms is becoming increasingly realistic for a variety of application domains, including military and emergency personnel training. In the past, there was much debate on whether the acquisition and subsequent transfer of spatial knowledge from VEs to the real world is possible, or whether the differences in medium during training would essentially be an obstacle to truly learning geometric space. In this paper, the authors present various cognitive and environmental factors that not only contribute to this process, but also interact with each other to a certain degree, leading to a variable exposure time requirement in order for the process of spatial knowledge acquisition (SKA) to occur. The cognitive factors that the authors discuss include a variety of individual user differences such as: knowledge and experience; cognitive gender differences; aptitude and spatial orientation skill; and finally, cognitive styles. Environmental factors discussed include: Size, Spatial layout complexity and landmark distribution. It may seem obvious that since every individual's brain is unique - not only through experience, but also through genetic predisposition that a one size fits all approach to training would be illogical. Furthermore, considering that various cognitive differences may further emerge when a certain stimulus is present (e.g. complex environmental space), it would make even more sense to understand how these factors can impact spatial memory, and to try to adapt the training session by providing visual/auditory cues as well as by changing the exposure time requirements for each individual. The impact of this research domain is important to VE training in general, however within service and military domains, guaranteeing appropriate spatial training is critical in order to ensure that disorientation does not occur in a life or death scenario.

Using high-fidelity virtual reality to study perception in freely moving observers

Technological innovations have had a profound influence on how we study the sensory perception in humans and other animals. One example was the introduction of affordable computers, which radically changed the nature of visual experiments. It is clear that vision research is now at cusp of a similar shift, this time driven by the use of commercially available, low-cost, high- fidelity virtual reality (VR). In this review we will focus on: (a) the research questions VR allows experimenters to address and why these research questions are important, (b) the things that need to be considered when using VR to study human perception, (c) the drawbacks of current VR systems, and (d) the future direction vision research may take, now that VR has become a viable research tool.

Haptically enabled interactive virtual reality prototype for general assembly

Desktop computers based virtual training systems are attracting paramount attention from manufacturing industries due to their potential advantages over the conventional training practices. Significant cost savings can be realized due to the shorter training-scenarios development times and reuse of existing engineering models. In addition, by using computer based virtual reality (VR) training systems, the time span from the product design to commercial production can be shortened due to non-reliance on hardware parts. Within the aforementioned conceptual framework, a haptically enabled interactive and immersive virtual reality (HIIVR) system is presented. Unlike existing VR systems, the presented idea tries to imitate real physical training scenarios by providing comprehensive user interaction, constrained within the physical limitations of the real world imposed by the haptics devices within the virtual environment. As a result, in contrast to the existing VR systems, capable of providing knowledge generally about assembly sequences only, the proposed system helps in procedural learning and procedural skill development as well, due to its high physically interactive nature.

Frame rate improvement for the VFX1 headset in virtual reality applications

Concentrates on reducing the processing time to enhance the visual component of the experience in virtual reality. Investigates the use of two co-processing cards, each with their own microprocessor providing parallel processing to the host computer. Concludes that the frame rates of a single computer running the virtual reality system could be improved by up to 35% by the use of parallel processing.

Haptics and virtual reality in modern manufacturing

Product assembly is one of the most studied processes in modern manufacturing. In recent years a number of computer-based virtual reality systems have been proposed, developed and adopted by the manufacturing industries. Such systems have major advantages over conventional training practices for product assembly. Significant cost savings can be realized due to shorter training-scenario development times and reuse of existing engineering math models. In addition, the time span from the product design to full production can be shortened due to non-reliance on actual components and subsystems for training. Such training systems are effective if the knowledge required to be transferred is just process sequence such as assembly sequence. However, knowledge transfer for procedural and cognitive learning as well as skills development is very limited, due to the lack of user interactivity and immersion.

This talk will focus on a research technology platform where haptics and virtual reality are integrated to create an effective environment for production assembly operators’ training. In this system virtual reality provides the grounds for realistic visualization, as well as immersion, whereas haptics enforces physical constraints within the virtual world generating the feelings of realistic interaction, making it accessible for formal learning and better understanding during task performance.

The developed research technology platform imitates real physical training scenarios by providing comprehensive user interaction, constrained within the physical limitations of the real world. Through the utilization of a haptics device, providing realistic force feedback, users are able to engage in product assembly training with a stronger sense of ‘reality’.

Virtual reality interaction techniques

This paper addresses the problems associated with interaction in immersive virtual reality and makes recommendations as to how best to deal with these problems, thereby producing a usable virtual reality interactive environment. Immersive virtual reality means that the users are immersed or contained inside the environment in which they are working. For example, they are able to turn their heads and look around, as well as use their bodies to control the system.

The work in progress involves a study of various virtual reality input devices, some designed and implemented as part of the project. Additionally, the paper describes a simple framework for separation of the interaction and application parts of a virtual reality system in order to facilitate an object oriented approach to the implementation of the recommendations, and to the building of future virtual reality applications which incorporate these ideas.

A generic virtual reality interaction system and its extensions using the common object request broker architecture (CORBA)

The paper describes the design and implementation of an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) interaction system. The system aims to provide a flexible mechanism for programmers to implement interaction in their VR applications, making good use of all accepted practices in the field. The paper further describes how the system was extended to a multi-user system using the CORBA middleware layer.