Polina Häfner

Teaching Methodology for Virtual Reality Practical Course in Engineering Education

Abstract Virtual reality is widely used in the industry and is becoming more and more affordable for end users. At the same time higher education students want to be well-prepared for their professional life and expect more courses with practical application of theoretical knowledge acquired during their studies. Moreover, they benefit greatly when having the possibility to improve their soft skills. This paper presents the teaching methodology for a practical course in virtual reality for graduate and undergraduate students. The course design focuses on learning about virtual reality by simulating interdisciplinary industrial projects and it aims at developing skills such as methodical approach to practical engineering problems, teamwork, working in interdisciplinary groups and time management. In addition the paper discusses the importance of the course design, task specification and work group composition for a successful realization of the course and refers to some project examples from the past three years.

Methodology to Develop Ontological Building Information Model for Energy Management System in Building Operational Phase

Energy consumption in building sector has been taking a significant percentage of the total energy consumption on earth. This is due to the development of more advanced and sophisticated building appliances to fulfil the comfort requirements. The EU has responded this trend by requiring zero CO2 emission in building by 2020 and by supporting innovative research approaches for improving energy efficiency in buildings with still considering inhabitants comfort. This chapter describes an approach to develop an intelligent system for building specific energy management that allows occupants and facility managers to monitor and control the energy consumption and also detects the energy wasting points. In this chapter, we explain the methodology to develop ontology based information model for building energy management offering expressive representation and reasoning capabilities. We also highlight an approach to develop the ontology as the knowledge base providing the intelligence of the system. Furthermore we show the improvement of the energy performance analysis with the help of ontology based approach.

Methodology for immersive emotional assessment of virtual product design by customers

This paper presents a novel, integrated methodology for customer-centered emotional assessment of future products during the early conceptual design stages. This methodology integrates the technologies of Virtual Reality and emotion recognition in the simultaneous, interconnected processes of product development and market research. Its goal is to provide relevant emotional customer feedback during the interactive experience of only virtually existing conceptual product designs at early development stages. In this way, the company can identify which product designs would be suitable for future products. The novelty aspect of the methodology lies in the structured integration of experts from various disciplines with specific roles. It enables the often neglected holistic approach to the task. Each participant can identify best solutions to problems from their area of expertise and contribute to solving interface problems in a synergetic manner. The presented validation study proved the coherence of the methodology and showed clear preferences for concrete technological solutions regarding the state of the art and the future potentials.

The impact of motion in virtual environments on memorization performance

Virtual environments are more and more used for educational and training purposes. In order to design virtual environments for these applications in particular, it is very important to get a deep understanding of the relevant design features supporting the users process of learning and comprehension. Relevance and implementation of these features as well as the benefits of virtual learning environments over traditional educational approaches in general are rarely explored. Focusing on modes of interaction in this work, we examined the effect of different motion types on the knowledge acquisition of users in various virtual environments. For our study we chose a simple memorization task as approximation of low cognitive knowledge acquirement. We hypothesized motion types and immersion levels influence memorization performance in virtual environments. The memorization task was conducted in two virtual environments with different levels of immersion: A high-immersive Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) and a low-immersive desktop virtual environment. Two motion types in virtual environments were explored: Physical and virtual walking. In the CAVE physical walking was implemented by using motion capturing and virtual walking was realized using a joystick-like input device. The results indicate neither motion types nor immersion levels in virtual environments affect memorization performance significantly.

Innovation braucht Resourceful Humans Aufbruch in eine neue Arbeitskultur durch Virtual Engineering

Der Trend zu mehr sozialem Wohlbefinden im Einklang mit der Wohlstandssteigerung und die verstarkte Rolle der sozialen Vernetzung birgt deutlich die Anzeichen einer tiefgreifenden gesellschaftlichen Veranderung. Dabei handelt es sich nicht mehr nur darum, die Weltwirtschaft fur die grosen Herausforderungen zu starken. Menschen mit der Fahigkeit des vernetzten Denkens und Handelns und mit dem Blick fur das grose Ganze sind gefragt. Bisher wird der Mensch mit seinem Potential, trotz aller Beteuerungen, jedoch noch als „Human Ressource“ aber nicht wirklich als „Resourceful Human“ (in Anlehnung an Fischer, 2012) betrachtet. Der Ubergang zum „Mensch im Mittelpunkt der Betrachtung“ setzt eine zukunftsfahige Innnovationskultur voraus, die ein grundlegend verandertes Verstandnis der menschlichen Moglichkeiten und Bedurfnisse im Umgang mit Technologien, Arbeitssystemen und naturlichen Ressourcen aber auch den Menschen selbst benotigt. Weiterhin sind neue Modellierungs- und Interaktionsparadigmen, Technologielosungen sowie Arbeitskulturen gefragt, die den Wechsel der Blickrichtung zu Innovation durch „Resourceful Humans“ ermoglichen und somit masgeblich zur effektiven und effizienten Teamarbeit in unternehmensubergreifenden und interkulturellen Unternehmenspartnerschaften beitragen.

Experiencing Physical and Technical Phenomena in Schools Using Virtual Reality Driving Simulator

In the time of globalization and technical advances, companies want to remain competitive on national and international markets. This requires a qualified workforce with a corresponding level of education in the STEM fields. This paper presents a didactic methodology for a virtual reality-based workshop which supplements the school curricula of secondary education institutions. A virtual reality driving simulation application is used in order to enhance the students understanding of different physical and technical phenomena as well as to teach technical skills, such as the ability to program virtual reality applications. We observed that this methodology helps to reduce complexity and aid the understanding of the subject. This is due to the three main contributing factors: Immersion, interaction and engagement. The enthusiasm for the virtual reality systems kept the students motivated not only during the teaching units, but it has also inspired them to pursue the STEM careers.

Methodology for emotional assessment of product design by customers in virtual reality

The presented six-step methodology suggests a novel, integrated way of emotional assessment of future products during the early conceptual design stages by the customer. In the first step, the product developers create virtual product concepts. These will be evaluated by the lead user group, which is defined by market researchers within the second step. The third step is the design of the immersive emotional assessment environment, which combines compatible technological solutions for virtual reality and measurements of psycho-physiological data. The experiment in the fourth step consists of preparation and calibration sub-steps and of the product case scenario. After completing the statistical analysis of the experimental results in the fifth step, the variant space is reduced in a customer-centered way. The goal of this methodology is to provide relevant emotional customer feedback during the interactive experience of only virtually existing conceptual product designs at very early development stages and thus to identify emotionally suitable designs. Its novelty aspect lies in the holistic approach through the structured integration of experts from the areas of product development, marketing, virtual reality, and psychology. The presented validation study proved the coherence of the methodology. Furthermore, it showed clear preferences for the application of simple interaction gestures, the PA emotional model, and the measurement of psycho-physiological parameters—especially the zygomaticus major muscle activity—as suitable state-of-the-art solutions for capturing relevant customer emotional feedback in an immersive environment.

Neue Wege durch Service Prototyping : Verbesserte Kommunikation und Entscheidungsfindung in der Dienstleistungsentwicklung durch den Einsatz von Prototyping

Kurzfassung Service Prototyping dient primär dazu, Dienstleistungen im Entwicklungsstadium erlebbar zu machen. Das Projekt dimenSion strebt somit an, ein praxisorientiertes Verfahren bereitzustellen, das auch von KMU mit einem guten Aufwand/Nutzen-Verhältnis eingesetzt werden kann und den Erfolg entwickelter Dienstleistungen absichert. Durch den Einsatz von Service Prototyping sollen Unternehmen dabei unterstützt werden, ihre Entscheidungsfindung zu verbessern und Alternativen besser bewerten zu können.

Methodology for Efficiency Analysis of VR Environments for Industrial Applications

Companies are keen on using novel technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) in order to achieve competitive advantages. However, the economic impact of the integration of such technologies in a company is difficult to quantify. Especially small and medium enterprises encounter difficulties when trying to quantify the benefits of instruments like VR. During the decision process, companies need extensive support and expensive consulting. In this paper a methodology for an efficiency analysis of industrial VR integration is presented. It includes both cost- and utility-based considerations. The user-friendly analysis allows the decision-maker to access a deeper understanding of VR and it results in a customised VR solution. The proposed economic assessment methodology is being validated by two companies in the mechanical engineering sector and it is proved to be a very useful tool to enable the decision for VR integration.

Interaktive Flexibilitätsbewertung in virtuellen Welten

Kurzfassung Um bei immer komplexer werdenden Marktanforderungen konkurrenzfähig zu bleiben, besteht in der Produktion ein Bedarf an flexiblen Strukturen und Prozessen. Methoden der digitalen Fabrik wie die Flexibilitätsbewertung können mit Virtueller Realität (VR) kombiniert werden, um dem Nutzer zu ermöglichen, in die Simulation einzutauchen. Die interaktiv konfigurierbare Fabrikhalle erlaubt es, Arbeitsplätze, Produktionslinien bis hin zur gesamten Fabrik zu planen oder zu optimieren, und erleichtert allgemein die Entscheidungsfindung.