A clear and concise description and explanation of your chosen technology
There are many different aspects of Virtual Reality, such as ‘Immersive VR’, ‘Desktop VR’, ‘Command and control’ and ‘Augmented Reality’. I will briefly explain the differences between the various aspects of Virtual Reality below. (Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale 2004)
Immerse VR
Immerse VR allows the user to be fully “immersed” into the virtual world. This could mean they are using such equipment like ‘VR Goggles’, ‘VR Helmet’, ‘VR full body kit’ and a ‘VR Dataglove’. (Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale 2004) Being fully immersed into the virtual world allows the user to be completely inside this world whereby they can interact with the objects around them.
Desktop VR
Desktop VR allows the user to interact with 3D objects using the mouse and the keyboard. Examples of where this has been used is in ‘football’ games and other games like “Flight Simulator”, “DOOM” and “Quake 3” too, however with Quake 3 the default maps can be transformed using ‘VRML’ which stands for Virtual Reality Markup Language. Figure 1 illustrates the transformed Quake 3 map in VRML and Figures 2 and 3 illustrate the use of VRML in a football game. VRML allows virtual worlds to be spread across the Internet which can be integrated with other virtual worlds. The user can have the option of navigating through these worlds and interacting with the objects in front of them using both the keyboard and the mouse. Furthermore the use of these interactions can also take the user from one virtual world to another. (Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale 2004)
Figure 1 - Quake 3 VRML (Grahn)
Figure 2 - Football Game VRML (Virtual Reality Laboratory 2004)
Figure 3 - Football Game VRML (Virtual Reality Laboratory 2004)Command and Control VR allows the user to be put in a virtual world but be surrounded by real physical surroundings. For e.g. the use of flight simulators. The user is in a pretend cockpit where the windows are replaced with large screens that have the terrain projected to them in which case the cockpit moves around to simulate being in a real flight simulation. (Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale 2004)
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality is where both VR and the real world meet. Virtual images are projected over the user as an overlay whereby the user can interact with the objects in front of them. (Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale 2004) The use of similar technology has been used in ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ in the war simulation at the beginning of the film.
The disadvantage of Augmented Reality is that both the overlay of the virtual world and the physical objects must be exactly aligned otherwise problems could occur whereby the interaction of objects could be miscalculated and would most definite confuse the user but also could be fatal depending on the interaction carried out. The advantage of such technology is that with the use of the user’s gaze and position it is detected by the virtual world in which case the environment is safe. (Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale 2004)
An insight into how your chosen technology ‘breaks’ the paradigm of desktop computing
In relation to the other aspects of VR I have decided to choose the use of Desktop VR in particular the use of VRML. One example I have found which is supported with evidence is the use of surgery. Operations can be carried out by surgeons in a virtual world. The use of carrying out surgery in such a way is to perfect the technique in carrying out a certain procedure. The patient’s body is scanned and the data is passed and transformed into the virtual world. What’s more is that the use of haptic feedback is incorporated in this simulation whereby the surgeon can feel the texture and the resistance whilst the incision is being made in the “virtual body”. See Figures 4 – 6 for examples of where this has been used. (Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale 2004)
Figure 4 - Surgery VRML (State and Ilie 2004)
Figure 5 - Surgery VRML (State and Ilie 2004)
Figure 6 - Surgery VRML (State and Ilie 2004)
An analysis of the usability and HCI problems still to be overcome before your chosen technology becomes widely adopted in the market
Immerse VR can be costly as it requires a lot of processing power and thus it is still not ready for mass market. (Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale 2004) Furthermore it could be uncomfortable to wear the gear that comes with immersive VR. (Prashanth)
Furthermore, the user in the virtual world could also suffer from ‘motion sickness’ if there is latency in the system relaying the images to the user, whereby the user will become disorientated from the dizziness. (Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale 2004)
With augmented VR the registration of the overlay and the physical objects need to be exact as disussed above as it could be disastrous if these images are not correctly aligned. (Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale 2004)
References
Websites
Grahn, H. N/A [online] available from <http://home.snafu.de/hg/vrml/q3bsp/q3mpteam3_shot.jpg> [25 April 2008]
– Uses VRML
Prashanth, B.R. AN INTRODUCTION TO VIRTUAL REALITY IN SURGERY [online] available from
<http://www.edu.rcsed.ac.uk/lectures/Lt12.htm#Applications>
State, A. and Ilie, A. (2004) 3D+Time Reconstructions [online] available from <
– Uses VRML
Virtual Reality Laboratory (2004) The Virtual Football Trainer [online] available from
<http://www-vrl.umich.edu/project/football/>
– Uses VRML
Books
Dix, A. , Finlay, J. , Abowd, G. and Beale, R. (2004) HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION. 3rd ed. Essex:Pearson Education Limited
Other related resources found but not used above:
YouTube Videos
YouTube (2008) Physics and Augmented Reality – Part 1 [online] available from
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enXTKvhE7yk> [24 April 2008]
YouTube (2008) Physics and Augmented Reality – Part 2 [online] available from
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umbTreYhidM> [24 April 2008]
YouTube (2008) Augmented Reality Encyclopedia [online] available from
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHkUOpYNhoM&feature=related>
[24 April 2008]
YouTube (2008) Virtual Museum powered by Augmented Reality [online] available from
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzMvpTT-h3w> [24 April 2008]
YouTube (2008) 2D/3D Helicopter (Augmented Reality) [online] available from
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV5ODoMs2TI> [24 April 2008]
– Can definitely be used for desktop screens, especially the flat screens
Movies that have incorporated different views on VR:
Websites
IMDB (2008) X-Men: The Last Stand [online] available from <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376994/> [24 April 2008]
– The beginning part of the film of the war simulation
IMDB (2008) The Lawnmower Man [online] available from <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104692/> [24 April 2008]
– Uses the full body gear i.e. ‘VR Goggles’, ‘VR Body Suit’ and ‘VR Dataglove’
IMDB (2008) TRON [online] available from <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084827/> [24 April 2008]
– Uses the full body gear too, although I was too young to remember this film ;)
Online Papers For VR
Brewster, S. and Pengelly, H. Visual Impairment, Virtual Reality and Visualisation [online] available from <http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~stephen/visualisation/>
[25 April 2008]
– VR for blind people
Villanueva, R., Moore, A. and Wong, W. (2004) Usability evaluation of non-immersive, desktop, photo-realistic virtual environments [online] available from <http://eprints.otago.ac.nz/152/01/28_Villanueva.pdf> [25 April 2008]
Weaver, A., Kizakevich, P., Stoy, W., Magee, H., Ott, W. and Wilson, K. Usability Analysis of VR Simulation Software [online] available from <http://www.rti.org/pubs/Usability.PDF> [25 April 2008]
YouTube (2008) Pay Check 1 [online] available from <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiDmvNW8K2w>
[24 April 2008]
– The movie Paycheck in the beginning part of the film definitely “breaks” desktop computing
Lecture Notes
Jonathan Cohen (2000) 600.450 Virtual Worlds, 12, ‘Introduction to Virtual Reality’, Johns Hopkins University <http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~cohen/VW2000/Lectures/Introduction_to_VR.color.pdf>
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