Virtual reality for the masses.
01 Sep 2014-IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications (IEEE Comput Graph Appl)-Vol. 34, Iss: 5, pp 103-104
TL;DR: The announcement of several new high-performance VR devices aimed at the consumer market suggests that the authors might soon have more immersive gaming options.
Abstract: Despite an eager market, the lack of high-performing virtual-reality products at consumer-level prices has relegated entertainment VR applications to something you'd find in an amusement park or still languishing as a prototype. However, the announcement of several new high-performance VR devices aimed at the consumer market suggests that we might soon have more immersive gaming options.
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27 Dec 2017
TL;DR: A systematic review of the use of virtual reality in education, as well as two distinct thematic analyses that indicate that the majority of researchers use virtual reality to increase the intrinsic motivation of students, and refer to a narrow range of factors such as constructivist pedagogy, collaboration, and gamification in the design of their experiences.
Abstract: Virtual reality has existed in the realm of education for over half a century. However, its widespread adoption is still yet to occur. This is a result of a myriad of limitations to both the technologies themselves, and the costs and logistics required to deploy them. In order to gain a better understanding of what these issues are, and what it is that educators hope to gain by using these technologies in the first place, we have performed both a systematic review of the use of virtual reality in education, as well as two distinct thematic analyses. The first analysis investigated the applications and reported motivations provided by educators in academic literature for developing virtual reality educational systems, while the second investigated the reported problems associated with doing so. These analyses indicate that the majority of researchers use virtual reality to increase the intrinsic motivation of students, and refer to a narrow range of factors such as constructivist pedagogy, collaboration, and gamification in the design of their experiences. Similarly, a small number of educational areas account for the vast majority of educational virtual reality implementations identified in our analyses. Next, we introduced and compared a multitude of recent virtual reality technologies, discussing their potential to overcome several of the problems identified in our analyses, including cost, user experience and interactivity. However, these technologies are not without their own issues, thus we conclude this paper by providing several novel techniques to potentially address them, as well as potential directions for future researchers wishing to apply these emerging technologies to education.
248 citations
Cites background from "Virtual reality for the masses."
...…VR-related peripherals, many of which have been the focus of recent mainstream media attention both for the fact that they are almost all crowd-funded, and that they aim to bring VR to the masses (Avila & Bailey, 2014; Control-VR, 2014; Cybreth, 2013; Oculus, 2012; Omni, 2014; PrioVR, 2014)....
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...Approaches to interacting with head-mounted displays Arguably the device which pre-empted the recent resurgence in consumer interest in VR, the head-mounted display (HMD) is of prime importance to any discussion into the current state and direction of VR (Avila & Bailey, 2014)....
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10 Apr 2018
TL;DR: This article provides an overview of the numerous virtual travel techniques proposed prior to the commercialization of VR and presents walking techniques falling into three general categories: repositioning systems, locomotion based on proxy gestures, and redirected walking.
Abstract: Recent technological developments have finally brought virtual reality (VR) out of the laboratory and into the hands of developers and consumers. However, a number of challenges remain. Virtual travel is one of the most common and universal tasks performed inside virtual environments, yet enabling users to navigate virtual environments is not a trivial challenge—especially if the user is walking. In this article, we initially provide an overview of the numerous virtual travel techniques that have been proposed prior to the commercialization of VR. Then we turn to the mode of travel that is the most difficult to facilitate, that is, walking. The challenge of providing users with natural walking experiences in VR can be divided into two separate, albeit related, challenges: (1) enabling unconstrained walking in virtual worlds that are larger than the tracked physical space and (2) providing users with appropriate multisensory stimuli in response to their interaction with the virtual environment. In regard to the first challenge, we present walking techniques falling into three general categories: repositioning systems, locomotion based on proxy gestures, and redirected walking. With respect to multimodal stimuli, we focus on how to provide three types of information: external sensory information (visual, auditory, and cutaneous), internal sensory information (vestibular and kinesthetic/proprioceptive), and efferent information. Finally, we discuss how the different categories of walking techniques compare and discuss the challenges still facing the research community.
84 citations
TL;DR: An approach to physical rehabilitation using state-of-the-art technologies in virtual reality and motion tracking and experts in physical rehabilitation working in the medical field have carried out a preliminary evaluation, showing encouraging results.
57 citations
23 Apr 2018
TL;DR: This comparative study investigates the functional fidelity of a virtual reality flight simulator (VRFS) in comparison with a conventional flight simulator to show statistically significant differences in heading, altitude, and flight path.
Abstract: . With the help of immersive virtual reality technology, novel cockpit systems can be evaluated with pilots in an early design phase. This comparative study investigates the functional fide...
31 citations
Cites background from "Virtual reality for the masses."
...Today, VR is on the verge of entering the consumer market once again with major hard- and software companies currently developing affordable HMDs, controllers, and tracking systems that overcome the limitations of earlier VR devices (Avila & Bailey, 2014)....
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TL;DR: A novel evaluation testbed which, by building on the outcomes of many separate works reported in the literature, aims to support a comprehensive analysis of the considered design space and an experimental protocol for collecting objective and subjective measures is proposed.
Abstract: A common operation performed in Virtual Reality (VR) environments is locomotion. Although real walking can represent a natural and intuitive way to manage displacements in such environments, its use is generally limited by the size of the area tracked by the VR system (typically, the size of a room) or requires expensive technologies to cover particularly extended settings. A number of approaches have been proposed to enable effective explorations in VR, each characterized by different hardware requirements and costs, and capable to provide different levels of usability and performance. However, the lack of a well-defined methodology for assessing and comparing available approaches makes it difficult to identify, among the various alternatives, the best solutions for selected application domains. To deal with this issue, this article introduces a novel evaluation testbed which, by building on the outcomes of many separate works reported in the literature, aims to support a comprehensive analysis of the considered design space. An experimental protocol for collecting objective and subjective measures is proposed, together with a scoring system able to rank locomotion approaches based on a weighted set of requirements. Testbed usage is illustrated in a use case requesting to select the technique to adopt in a given application scenario.
27 citations
Cites background from "Virtual reality for the masses."
...slippery shoes-based interfaces able to reduce the friction generated by the users’ steps [28], [29], [30]....
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