Frank Meijer

Navigating through virtual environments: visual realism improves spatial cognition.

Recent advances in computer technology have significantly facilitated the use of virtual environments (VE) for small and medium enterprises (SME). However, achieving visual realism in such VE requires high investments in terms of time and effort, while its usefulness has not yet become apparent from research. Other qualities of VE, such as the use of large displays, proved its effectiveness in enhancing the individual users spatial cognition. The current study assessed whether the same benefits apply for visual realism in VE. Thirty-two participants were divided into two groups, who explored either a photorealistic or a nonrealistic supermarket presented on a large screen. The participants were asked to navigate through the supermarket on a predetermined route. Subsequently, spatial learning was tested in four pen-and-paper tests that assessed how accurately they had memorized the route and the environments spatial layout. The study revealed increased spatial learning from the photorealistic compared to the nonrealistic supermarket. Specifically, participants performed better on tests that involved egocentric spatial knowledge. The results suggest visual realism is useful because it increases the users spatial knowledge in the VE. Therefore, the current study provides clear evidence that it is worthwhile for SME to invest in achieving visual realism in VE.

Active exploration improves perceptual sensitivity for virtual 3D objects in visual recognition tasks

Several studies demonstrated that active exploration as compared to passive observation of a variety of objects leads to improved performance concerning these actively studied objects later on. These results may be specifically due to an improvement in perceptual recognition but in principle they may also be due to a speeding up of responses to actively studied objects. Recently, however, it was suggested that the benefit of active exploration on perceptual recognition may be restricted to a specific class of (biologically relevant) stimuli. By employing measures derived from signal detection theory we were able to show in all our three experiments that active exploration of virtual 3D objects leads to improved perceptual sensitivity in a subsequent test phase. The improvement with these objects means that the benefit of active exploration is not restricted to a specific class of biologically relevant stimuli. The results of our second experiment further demonstrate that the benefit of active exploration is even strong enough to fully compensate for the effect of perceptual degradation, thereby emphasizing the major impact of active exploration. In our third experiment, we explored the possibility that effects of active exploration might be due to major changes in attentional strategies rather than to the action-related aspect. Results revealed that an attentional requirement left the active-passive difference by and large intact supporting the view that the advantage of active object exploration lies in the action itself.

Representing 3D virtual objects: Interaction between visuo-spatial ability and type of exploration

We investigated individual differences in interactively exploring 3D virtual objects. 36 participants explored 24 simple and 24 difficult objects (composed of respectively three and five Biederman geons) actively, passively, or not at all. Both their 3D mental representation of the objects and visuo-spatial ability was assessed. Results show that, regardless of the objects complexity, people with a low VSA benefit from active exploration of objects, where people with a middle or high VSA do not. These findings extend and refine earlier research on interactively learning visuo-spatial information and underline the importance to take individual differences into account.

Synthetic Environments for Cooperative Product Design

Synthetic Environments (SE) facilitate an easy setup of various virtual realities since they are component-based and relatively easy maintainable. Through three stages, involving various types of stakeholders, the feasibility of SEs for cooperative product design (CPD) was explored: 1) Semi-structured group interviews with 19 engineers and designers assessed SEs potential for CPD; 2) Implementation of a SE; 3) Comparison of a SE with its real counterpart, through: a) an experimental task and b) questionnaires to determine the task performance, the mental workload, the experienced spatial presence, involvement, and realness. 16 participants had a similar task performance, mental workload, and involvement but differed in experienced realism (F(1,30)=5.11, p=.03) and spatial presence (F(1,30)=7.02, p=.01). This research emphasizes the benefit of SE for CPD, which can increase the communication, speed and quality of CPD. Hence, a first step is made towards a new era of CPD.

The impact of interactive manipulation on the recognition of objects

A new application for VR has emerged: product development, in which several stakeholders (from engineers to end users) use the same VR for development and communicate purposes. Various characteristics among these stakeholders vary considerably, which imposes potential constraints to the VR. The current paper discusses the influence of three types of exploration of objects (i.e., none, passive, active) on one of these characteristics: the ability to form mental representations or visuo-spatial ability (VSA). Through an experiment we found that all users benefit from exploring objects. Moreover, people with low VSA (e.g., end users) benefit from an interactive exploration of objects opposed to people with a medium or high VSA (e.g. engineers), who are not sensitive for the type of exploration. Hence, for VR environments in which multiple stakeholders participate (e.g. for product development), differences among their cognitive abilities (e.g., VSA) have to be taken into account to enable an efficient usage of VR.