Mirabelle D'Cruz

Manufacturing operations in virtual environments move

During the past 2 years, the way in which industry views virtual reality (VR) has changed. Previously, only a few large companies were assessing virtual environments either as internal marketing exercises or through demonstration worlds built for them by outside consultants or universities; most other industrialists may have seen VR as only having entertainment applications. Now there is some evidence that parts of industry, and manufacturing industry in particular, see VR as an increasingly affordable technology with potentially wide-ranging applications. This paper briefly describes a recent U.K. research program MOVE (Manufacturing Operations in Virtual Environments) consisting of an industrial VR user survey and demonstration applications built to allow potential users to make informed assessments of virtual environments. Two particular applications—training for maintenance and rapid prototyping for product design—are described in greater detail as examples of industrially relevant environments, before an assessment is provided of potential VR application in manufacturing.

Multimodal astronaut virtual training prototype

A few dedicated training simulator applications exist that mix realistic interaction devices-like real cockpits in flight simulators-with virtual environment (VE) components. Dedicated virtual reality (VR) systems have been utilized also in astronaut training. However there are no detailed descriptions of projection wall VR systems and related interaction techniques for astronaut assembly training in zero gravity conditions. Back projection technology tends to have certain advantages over head mounted displays including less simulation sickness and less restricted user movement. A prototype was built to evaluate the usefulness of projection technology VEs and interaction techniques for astronaut training. This was achieved by first constructing a PC cluster-based general purpose VE software and hardware platform. This platform was used to implement a testing prototype for astronaut assembly sequence training. An interaction tool battery was designed for the purposes of viewpoint control and object handling. A selected training task was implemented as a case study for further analysis based on laptop usage in the Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) inside the Columbus module in the International Space Station (ISS). User tests were conducted on the usability of the prototype for the intended training purpose. The results seem to indicate that projection technology-based VE systems and suitably selected interaction techniques can be successfully utilized in zero gravity training operations.

Understanding the complex needs of automotive training at final assembly lines

Automobile final assembly operators must be highly skilled to succeed in a low automation environment where multiple variants must be assembled in quick succession. This paper presents formal user studies conducted at OPEL and VOLVO Group to identify assembly training needs and a subset of requirements; and to explore potential features of a hypothetical game-based virtual training system. Stakeholder analysis, timeline analysis, link analysis, Hierarchical Task Analysis and thematic content analysis were used to analyse the results of interviews with various stakeholders (17 and 28 participants at OPEL and VOLVO, respectively). The results show that there is a strong case for the implementation of virtual training for assembly tasks. However, it was also revealed that stakeholders would prefer to use a virtual training to complement, rather than replace, training on pre-series vehicles.

Accessibility for older users through adaptive interfaces: opportunities, challenges and achievements

It has been widely suggested that accessibility to technology for older people could be improved by the provision of adaptive user interfaces. However there has been little practical work in the area. The MyUI project sets out to explore this area and to build infrastructure and three demonstrator applications based on interactive TV technology. This paper, looking at the project from a Human Factors perspective, explores whether accessibility for older people through dynamically adapting interfaces is a realistic goal, identifies some challenges and research questions, and provides an insight into some achievements and ongoing work in the project.

Distracting people from sources of discomfort in a simulated aircraft environment.

BACKGROUND Comfort is an important factor in the acceptance of transport systems. In 2010 and 2011, the European Commission (EC) put forward its vision for air travel in the year 2050 which envisaged the use of in-flight virtual reality. This paper addressed the EC vision by investigating the effect of virtual environments on comfort. Research has shown that virtual environments can provide entertaining experiences and can be effective distracters from painful experiences. OBJECTIVE To determine the extent to which a virtual environment could distract people from sources of discomfort. METHODS Experiments which involved inducing discomfort commonly experienced in-flight (e.g. limited space, noise) in order to determine the extent to which viewing a virtual environment could distract people from discomfort. RESULTS Virtual environments can fully or partially distract people from sources of discomfort, becoming more effective when they are interesting. They are also more effective at distracting people from discomfort caused by restricted space than noise disturbances. CONCLUSIONS Virtual environments have the potential to enhance passenger comfort by providing positive distractions from sources of discomfort. Further research is required to understand more fully the reasons why the effect was stronger for one source of discomfort than the other.

Imagining technology-enhanced learning with heritage artefacts: teacher-perceived potential of 2D and 3D heritage site visualisations

Background: There is much to be realised in the educational potential of national and world heritage sites. Such sites need to be supported in sharing their resources with a wide and international public, especially within formal education. Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) heritage site visualisations could serve this need. Our study focuses on the teacher-perceived possibilities and benefits for education around such visualisations. Purpose: We describe how a group of UK teachers perceive the potential of cross-curricular learning that could arise from an Italian world heritage site. The teachers commented on 2D visualisations of artefacts from this site, as well as the design of a 3D immersive environment to serve educational purposes. We consider as follows: (1) how the cross-curricular teaching potential of such resources is perceived, and (2) what design features of a 3D immersive environment teachers suggest are needed for educational explorations. Sample: We recruited 10 teachers from the Midlands region of the UK and carried out semi-structured interviews. Methods: Interviews were transcribed and a thematic analysis applied to the conversations. Questioning was grounded in the examination of 2D and 3D visual resources. This provoked cross-curricular and educational design thinking. Results: Teacher responses highlighted a wide range of cross-curricular possibilities. However, they expressed a more ‘assimilative’ than ‘accommodative’ approach when relating resources to the curriculum. Such ‘assimilation’ involved seeing the site artefacts as raw material for more instrumental ‘curriculum activities’ (e.g. within art and design, geography, maths or literacy) rather than a more accommodative approach whereby curricular disciplines were exercised to make new meaning from the artefacts. In relation to 3D technology design, most teachers highlighted three technology features that would render it well matched to educational practice and three educational benefits over non-3D immersive environments. Conclusions: Teachers can easily imagine a rich range of opportunities to utilise 2D and 3D heritage site artefacts within the curriculum. However, the largely assimilative nature of this cross-curricular appropriation suggests the value of providing more guidance and support to teachers in the interpretation and application of artefacts. Their design suggestions can usefully inform construction of educational features within 3D immersive technologies that support heritage site experiences.

Demonstration: VR-HYPERSPACE — The innovative use of virtual reality to increase comfort by changing the perception of self and space

Our vision is that regardless of future variations in the interior of airplane cabins, we can utilize ever-advancing state-of-the-art virtual and mixed reality technologies with the latest research in neuroscience and psychology to achieve high levels of comfort for passengers. Current surveys on passengers experience during air travel reveal that they are least satisfied with the amount and effectiveness of their personal space, and their ability to work, sleep or rest. Moreover, considering current trends it is likely that the amount of available space is likely to decrease and therefore the passengers physical comfort during a flight is likely to worsen significantly. Therefore, the main challenge is to enable the passengers to maintain a high level of comfort and satisfaction while being placed in a restricted physical space.

Human Factors of Virtual Reality – Where are We Now?

. Considerable changes have taken place in the focus of research into human factors issues associated with the use of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies. This has coincided with developments in VR display and programming technologies and increased applied use of VR in industrial contexts. This chapter presents a set of case studies that illustrate the human factors issues identified from a diverse set of VR applications over recent years. Case studies are presented from six different applications – a Virtual Factory simulation, Rail simulation, development of visual interaction metaphors for design visualisation, development of collaboration technologies to support industrial decision-making, representation of material properties in Virtual Environments (VE), and development of speech interaction for VR. For each of these case studies, the human factors issues of interest are discussed. The changing research priorities for VR research are then presented in a future research agenda for human factors of VR.

User Involvement in Design and Application of Virtual Reality Gamification to Facilitate the Use of Hearing Aids

The 3D Tune-In project aims to create an innovative toolkit based on 3D sound, visuals and gamification techniques to facilitate different target audiences in understanding and using the varied settings of their hearing aid to attain optimum performance in different social contexts. In the early stages of project development, hearing aid (HA) users participated in activities to identify user requirements regarding the difficulties and issues they face in everyday situations due to their hearing loss. The findings from questionnaire and interview studies and identification of current personas and scenarios of use indicate that the project can clearly and distinctly support the requirements of people with hearing loss as well as improve the general publics understanding of hearing loss. Five Future Scenarios of use have been derived to describe how the technologies and games to be developed by the 3D Tune-In project will address these requirements.

Virtual Valcamonica: collaborative exploration of prehistoric petroglyphs and their surrounding environment in multi-user virtual reality

In this article, we present a novel, multi-user, virtual reality environment for the interactive, collaborative 3D analysis of large 3D scans and the technical advancements that were necessary to build it: a multi-view rendering system for large 3D point clouds, a suitable display infrastructure, and a suite of collaborative 3D interaction techniques. The cultural heritage site of Valcamonica in Italy with its large collection of prehistoric rock-art served as an exemplary use case for evaluation. The results show that our output-sensitive level-of-detail rendering system is capable of visualizing a 3D dataset with an aggregate size of more than 14 billion points at interactive frame rates. The system design in this exemplar application results from close exchange with a small group of potential users: archaeologists with expertise in rockart. The system allows them to explore the prehistoric art and its spatial context with highly realistic appearance. A set of dedicated interaction techniques was developed to facilitate collaborative visual analysis. A multi-display workspace supports the immediate comparison of geographically distributed artifacts. An expert review of the final demonstrator confirmed the potential for added value in rock-art research and the usability of our collaborative interaction techniques.