Ubiquitous Virtual Reality ‘To-Go’

Aryabrata Basu, Kyle Johnsen University of Georgia

SUMMARY We propose to demonstrate a ubiquitous immersive virtual

reality system that is highly scalable and accessible to a larger audience. With the advent of handheld and wearable devices, we have seen it gain considerable popularity among the common masses.

We present a practical design of such a system that offers the core affordances of immersive virtual reality in a portable and untethered configuration. In addition, we have developed an extensive immersive virtual experience that involves engaging users visually and aurally. This is an effort towards integrating VR into the space and time of user workflows.

1 DESCRIPTION OF THE DEMO

1.1 Objective To demonstrate the usefulness and the feasibility of deploying

Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) in a more realistic setting augmented over the richness of the real world. To understand and resolve the fundamental problems involved in accessibility of IVEs.

In addition, we intend to study the correlation between the physical environment and the virtual environment (inside/outside virtual experience) and how it affects the overall presence.

1.2 Demo Application We will be running an immersive virtual experience where the

user would be immersed in a 3D environment and would be asked to shoot down virtual bull’s eye targets in a limited period of time. This unique experience engages a user’s perception of spatially locating virtual objects inside the world. There are two possible scenarios:

A. Inside Warehouse Shooting Environment. B. Outside Urban Shooting Environment.

A better result is obtained when a user aims using a precise eye-

head-hand coordination in pointing at visual targets. This serves as a presence marker for users achieving high precision inside the IVE.

The setup includes a custom untethered 3d printed Head Mounted Display with the Smart Phone as the primary display and a body worn electromagnetic tracker on a utility belt design.

The average running time per session is 6 to 7 minutes. The average time required to deploy an IVE is under 1 minute.

1.3 Target Application An array of training simulations can be designed using this

system. Some of them could be medical training and simulation, sports simulation, exposure therapy.

A scenario that requires a quick exposure to an IVE can be achieved.

2 DEMONSTRATION OF FEASIBILITY § Rapid deployment of an IVE. § A more usable and accessible platform for conducting

user studies inside IVEs.

3 DEMONSTRATION OF USEFULNESS § The system takes less than a minute to immerse a user

inside an IVE. § Users have reported presence markers while interacting

with virtual objects inside the IVE. § The rich features of the real world played a key role in

human comfort factors, while users adapt to using the system.

4 UCAVE IN USE

Figure 1: A user using our newly revised UCAVE.

*{basuarya, kjohnsen}@uga.edu

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IEEE Virtual Reality 201429 March - 2 April, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA978-1-4799-2871-2/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

5 VIRTUAL EXPERIENCES LABORATORY Dr. Kyle Johnsen founded the Virtual Experiences Laboratory

(VEL) after he joined the University of Georgia (UGA) at the College of Engineering in August 2008. Our laboratory serves as the center of virtual reality research and education at UGA. The mission of the VEL is to enable researchers and students to develop and study the next generation of virtual worlds, advanced user interfaces, and virtual reality applications.

5.1 Active Projects

5.1.1 NERVE Alongside a consortium of computer science and medical

researchers at the University of Florida and University of Central Florida, VEL members have been working on the Neurological Examination Rehearsal Virtual Environment (NERVE) as a simulator for teaching medical students to examine and diagnose patients with cranial nerve deficits, who present with symptoms such as double vision and facial paralysis. Within this context, VEL researchers have been exploring the role of mobile and immersive interfaces in learning clinical skills.

5.1.2 UCAVE VEL members have been involved in creating a self sufficient,

untethered virtual reality system called the Ubiquitous Collaborative Activity Virtual Environment (UCAVE).

UCAVE is a portable immersive virtual reality system that enables users to experience an immersive virtual perspective very rapidly. The whole system takes less than a minute to deploy an immersive virtual experience.

The UCAVE is being constantly tested under realistic conditions with randomly selected users. This is done in order to better understand human-comfort factors in adaptation of VR in user workflows.

5.1.3 Single Viewer Quasi-Volumetric Display VEL members have built a ‘quasi-volumetric’ display that

enable users to view large 3D objects at a higher resolution. This is a concept derived from true volumetric displays which

apparently suffer from issues like object translucency and low resolution. Thus VEL members have worked on a ‘quasi-volumetric’ approach that requires a user to rotate around a 3D stereoscopic display to inspect a virtual object.

This project is still in its prototyping stage and the tracking works well for single user.

5.1.4 Mixed Reality Virtual Pet Experiences This project aims to leverage the natural inclination of children

to enjoy interacting with animals to achieve health goals, such as obesity and diabetes prevention and treatment. By tying the health of a virtual animal to a child's own activity, children may become intrinsically motivated to achieve better personal heath. This project is actively researching novel ways to sense and record children's activity, as well as novel interaction methods to interact with the virtual pets.

Currently, we have developed a portable kiosk-based system that allows children to wear activity monitors that are individually tied to a virtual pet. By plugging in the activity monitor to a large-screen kiosk, the child can interact with the virtual pet through speech and gesture. The child can also work towards meeting goals and reaching an overall higher level of physical fitness.

5.1.5 Virtual Reality Surveying using Mobile Virtual Environments

The Survey Tool Emulation (STE) application aims to increase the effectiveness of courses related to land surveying. By using the STE app with an iPad, we are able to educate the user in a realistic environment with realistic tools where training to use a land survey tool can be a structured, moderated and easily repeatable experience. Consequently, the benefits of virtualizing training should lead to reduced training time, reduced costs (i.e. device purchases), and a reduced workload on the professor and/or training supervisor.

Figure 2: A user enjoying the Ubiquitous VR experience.

6 BRIEF VIDEO OF THE DEMO (URL) http://vel.engr.uga.edu/videos/UCAVE_Instructional_Video.m4v

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