392173 Projekt "Virtuelle Realität: Studies in Virtual Reality" (PjS) (SoSe 2015)

In the project Virtual Reality theoretical and practical knowledge obtained in the lecture and the tutorial on Virtual Reality are trained and deepened in a practical application.

The specific project title is:
Studies in Virtual Reality

Language: The project may be held in German or English, depending on the participants.

General Goal of the Project
In this project we want to implement interaction techniques for navigation, selection and manipulation in a virtual environment.

As a scenario, we will use the Supermarket scenario which is also used by one of the other projects. We will thus adapt an existing model of a virtual supermarket to our needs. The supermarket is an ideal scenario, as it provides a rich environment in which to navigate, both on a small and a larger scale, as well as many opportunities to select and manipulate objects (grabbing, turning around, putting in the car or back to the shelf).

The interaction methods can target different virtual reality platforms:
- the desktop
- the Oculus Rift or
- the CAVE

For each of the platforms we will design different navigation methods, such as
- Walking in place
- Penguin Fly
- Lean-based Velocity
- Path-drawing
As well as selection/manipulation methods such as
- Pointing
- Homer
- GoGo-Hand

A focus of the project will be on the evaluation and comparison of the different interaction techniques.

Procedure
The procedure of the project is oriented on the process of scientific research.

Phase 1 (April-May): State of the Art, Planning and Implementation
In the beginning, all participants will review the interaction methods we have learned in the lecture on Virtual Reality. We will then select a subset of interesting techniques and implement them for our interaction scenarios. We might also change the model of the supermarket to support our interaction techniques (e.g. organize the scenegraph appropriately).

Phase 2 (May-July): Evaluation
After a short input on evaluation methods for Virtual Reality environments, we will test our interaction techniques in a small user study. We may compare different techniques for the same environment or evaluate certain techniques in different set-ups, such as CAVE vs. HMD.

Remarks:
The project makes it easy for students of different disciplines and of different backgrounds to complement each other. While participants of the lecture on Virtual Reality may focus on the design and implementation of the interaction methods, participants of the lecture "Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion" (Human Machine Interaction) may develop the interaction concept and evaluate the implementation.

As a conclusion of the project, a report will be written. This report will be in the shape of a scientific paper, which might be even submitted to a real scientific workshop, such as the German Workshop for Virtual and Augmented Reality. Participants of the project, in particular those following a master's program, will learn how to structure and write a scientific article. If the article is accepted, participants will also have the chance to present their work on a real scientific workshop (on their own expense).

This project may lay the foundation for many interesting questions or application problems which could be addressed in a bachelor or master thesis.

Requirements for participation, required level

• Lecture on Virtual Reality OR Human-Machine-Interaction
• Participation in the tutorials on Virtual Reality is recommended
• The modelling and programming knowledge required in this project will be at the level of what has been learned in the tutorials.
• A large focus of this project will be on the design and evaluation of the interaction techniques, not on programming.

Bibliography

• X3D : extensible 3D graphics for web authors by Don Brutzman and Leonard Daly
• X3D : Programmierung interaktiver 3D-Anwendungen für das Internet by Jörg H. Kloss
• 3D user interfaces : theory and practice / Doug A. Bowman