Virtual Reality, Special Devices, and

Paper 2.5/2.6/2.7

Virtual Reality presents a world in 3d space

Regular input devices such as a mouse only has 2 degrees of movement when 6 is needed for true VR freedom.

Aircrafts use controls that function in 3d space◦ Many games and desktop virtual reality use

similar controls

Virtual Reality and 3D Interacton

3d Mouse◦ Does not function only on a table top◦ You can move:

Up and down angle (Pitch) Left and right orientation (Yaw) Twist on axis(Roll)

Virtual Reality cont.

Dataglove◦ Used on high end VR systems◦ Uses optical fibers in the glove to detect

movement of the joints in the hand◦ Also uses ultrasound sensors to determine 3D

positional space◦ High expense

Virtual Reality cont.

VR helmets◦ Two purposes

Display 3D space Track user’s head position

◦ Oculus Rift, Sony’s Project Morpheus Whole-body tracking

◦ Tracks the different movements of the body◦ Certain arcade games, special trampolines, 360

treadmills

Virtual Reality cont.

Seeing in stereoscopic◦ Because our eye look at an object from different

angles there are ways to “trick” the mind to see 3D objects from a 2D surface. Two images are show, one to each eye. Special glasses are used or special screens.

3D/VR motion sickness◦ Occurs when poor display of the image occurs,

confusing the brain and making you sick. Simulators and VR Caves

◦ Full immersion experience Flight simulators (in cockpit)

3D Displays

Special Displays◦ Dials, gauges, lights, LEDS◦ HUDS (Heads up display)

Sound outputs◦ Often used in conjunction with visual outputs◦ Speech, beeps (and other noises), clicks, rings◦ Auditory feedback

Touch, feel and smell◦ Haptic devices- force, resistance, and texture◦ Smell- Ability to trigger memory but cant be

change rapidly.

Physical Controls, Sensors, and Special Devices

Generic controls ◦ Keyboard

Dedicated controls◦ Microwave controls, washing machine dials

Infrared, movement, GPS, weight sensors Speech sensors Physiological sensors

Physical Controls and environment and bio sensing

Printing types◦ Dot Matrix

Line of pins (similar to a type writer)◦ Ink jet and bubble jet

Fires a small jet of ink or heats a bubble for a dot◦ Laser printer

Electrosstatic dots are deposited on a drum which rolls the ink onto a paper and heated.

Resolution for printing in dots per inch Printers also vary in speed and cost Wireless printers

Paper: Printing and Scanning

Fonts◦ Some printers print in only one “typewriter” style

font◦ Others are more sophisticated have access to

PostScript (a page description language) which allows for different font styles, curves, lines, and scaled bitmap images.

◦ Font has a point size (height), pitch (width) and shape (determined by name)

◦ Some fonts such as Courier have fixed pitch (same width.

Paper cont.

Word processors have a requirement in that they must be “What you see is what you get”◦ WYSIWYG

Screen resolution is about 72 dpi while a laser printer has over dpi. ◦ Different conversions of size and color are used to

print what is on the screen.

Screen and page

Scanners take what is on paper and put them on an electronic document.

Scanner types◦ Flat bed

On glass plate, page is converted to bitmap Can also be pulled through

◦ Handheld Same principle but moved by hand

A scanner head is passed over creating a bitmap strip◦ Light is used to shine upon the page and the

reflected light is measured

Scanners and optical character recognition

Scanners resolutions are between 600 and 2400 dpi

Used extensively in desktop publishing where cutting and pasting are used often

Also used in storing paper files digitally Optical character recognition(OCR) is the

process where computers can determine what characters are on the page.

Scanners cont.