Eyþór Rúnar Eiríksson

GyroVR: Simulating Inertia in Virtual Reality using Head Worn Flywheels

We present GyroVR, head worn flywheels designed to render inertia in Virtual Reality (VR. Motions such as flying, diving or floating in outer space generate kinesthetic forces onto our body which impede movement and are currently not represented in VR. We simulate those kinesthetic forces by attaching flywheels to the users head, leveraging the gyroscopic effect of resistance when changing the spinning axis of rotation. GyroVR is an ungrounded, wireless and self contained device allowing the user to freely move inside the virtual environment. The generic shape allows to attach it to different positions on the users body. We evaluated the impact of GyroVR onto different mounting positions on the head (back and front) in terms of immersion, enjoyment and simulator sickness. Our results show, that attaching GyroVR onto the users head (front of the Head Mounted Display (HMD)) resulted in the highest level of immersion and enjoyment and therefore can be built into future VR HMDs, enabling kinesthetic forces in VR.

VirtualTable: a projection augmented reality game

VirtualTable is a projection augmented reality installation where users are engaged in an interactive tower defense game. The installation runs continuously and is designed to attract people to a table, which the game is projected onto. Any number of players can join the game for an optional period of time. The goal is to prevent the virtual stylized soot balls, spawning on one side of the table, from reaching the cheese. To stop them, the players can place any kind of object on the table, that then will become part of the game. Depending on the object, it will become either a wall, an obstacle for the soot balls, or a tower, that eliminates them within a physical range. The number of enemies is dependent on the number of objects in the field, forcing the players to use strategy and collaboration and not the sheer number of objects to win the game.

Augmented Reality Interfaces for Additive Manufacturing

This paper explores potential use cases for using augmented reality (AR) as a tool to operate industrial machines. As a baseline we use an additive manufacturing system, more commonly known as a 3D printer. We implement novel augmented interfaces and controls using readily available open source frameworks and low cost hardware. Our results show that the technology enables richer and more intuitive printer control and performance monitoring than currently available on the market. Therefore, there is a great deal of potential for these types of technologies in future digital factories.

A self-calibrating robot based upon a virtual machine model of parallel kinematics

ABSTRACT A delta-type parallel kinematics system for Additive Manufacturing has been created, which through a probing system can recognise its geometrical deviations from nominal and compensate for these in the driving inverse kinematic model of the machine. Novelty is that this model is derived from a virtual machine of the kinematics system, built on principles from geometrical metrology. Relevant mathematically non-trivial deviations to the ideal machine are identified and decomposed into elemental deviations. From these deviations, a routine is added to a physical machine tool, which allows it to recognise its own geometry by probing the vertical offset from tool point to the machine table, at positions in the horizontal plane. After automatic calibration the positioning error of the machine tool was reduced from an initial error after its assembly of ±170 µm to a calibrated error of ±3 µm. Excelling by speed, the calibration was executed in less than 3 min.