Overview from Virtual Reality, Scientific and Technical Challenges , NRC, 1995

1. Overview from Virtual Reality, Scientific and Technical Challenges, NRC, 1995 Summarized by Geb Thomas

2. Learning Objectives • Be able to describe the current areas of research related to SE. • Be able to draw a system diagram differentiation teleoperation and virtual environments. • Be able to define augmented reality. • Be able to distinguish the NRC definition of Presence from Ellis’ definition. • Define the distinctions between a simulator and a virtual environment. • Describe common characteristics of SEs. • Define the symptoms of sopite syndrome.

3. Introduction • Includes both Virtual Environments and Teleoperation • VE - Human connects to simulated world • Telerobotics - Human connects to a real world via a robot sensors and actuators

4. Scope of the SE Field • Multidisciplinary • Terminology confusion • input and output • interface • High talk-to-work and excitement-to-accomplishment ratios

5. Current Areas of Research • Computer generation of VE • Design of telerobots • Improvement of human/machine interfaces • Relevant aspects of human behavior • Comm. systems and networks • Computer-generated images of the real world

6. Basic Concepts and Terminology • Teleoperator system -- a human operator, a human-machine interface and a telerobot • facilitate the human operator’s ability to sense, maneuver in, and manipulate the environment • Virtual environments system -- a human operator, a human-machine interface and a computer

8. Augmented Reality System • Virtual and real environments are combined • Information from real environment is directly sensed with see-through display, supplementary information from VE is overlaid on the display • VE, Teleoperator and Augmented Reality together constitute Synthetic Environments

10. Presence • Telepresence, virtual presence or synthetic presence • Extent to which the human operator loses his or her awareness of being present at the site of the interface and instead feels present in the artificial environment • Depends on: transparency of interface, amount and kind of interaction

11. VE and Simulator Distinction • VEs are: • Reconfigurable • Can create unnatural environments • Highly interactive and adaptable • Variety of sensing modalities • Strong sense of presence • Simulator is tied to physical system, VE to the operator • Simulator does far field, VE does near field

12. Common Characteristics • Visual and auditory displays • Head-mounted display monitoring head position • Control signals from head, hands, feet or speech • Haptic interface - interfaces hand for manual sensing and manipulation with gloves or exoskeletons

13. Application Domains • Entertainment • National Defense • Design, Manufacturing, and Marketing • Medicine and Health Care • Hazardous Operations • Education • Information Visualization • Telecommunication and Teletravel

14. Some Psych. Considerations • Most human behavior topics are relevant • Human performance • Sensorimotor resolution • Perceptual illusions • Information transfer rates • Manual tracking

15. Sopite syndrome (simulator sickness) • Symptoms • chronic fatigue, • lethargy • drowsiness • nausea • Causes -- • Temperature • Field of view • Visual/kinesthetic misalignment • Interaction effects

16. Current State of Technology • Visual channel • Auditory channel • Position tracking and mapping • Haptic channel • Motion interfaces • Other interfaces

17. Visual channel • Poor resolution • Limited field of view • Excessive weight • Poor fit • May cause sopite syndrome • $10K-$1M • Stereo glasses, booms

18. Auditory Channel • Effective, inexpensive and ergonomically reasonable • Limited spatial resolution • Loud speakers are sensitive to head position • Record and playback technologies must store huge quantities of information • Auditory scene analysis requires central processing

19. Position Tracking and Mapping • Position tracking • Real-time measurement of pose • Position mapping • Dense set of 3D positions on a surface • Determine body dimensions • Facial expressions • map real environments

20. Position tracking • Mechanical linkages • Magnetic sensors • optical sensors • acoustic sensors

21. Haptic channel • Complex combination of sensory functions and manipulative functions and electromechanical systems • Lack of recognized social need • Body-based gloves and exoskeletons • Ground-based devices (joysticks, robots) • Tool-handle systems • Skin, tactile displays

22. Motion interfaces • Vestibular system, • Motor system, • Visual and auditory systems, • Proprioceptive/kinesthetic systems • Tactile systems • Inertial Displays -- body moves • Noninertial displays -- body remains stationary • Treadmills, stair climbers, stationary bikes

23. Telerobotics • Design and performance of robots • micromechanical systems • Communication time delays • 30 ms between Washington and LA • 1 s between Earth and Moon • Supervisory control and predictive displays • Demands of real time input/output • distributed telerobotics

24. Networks • Shared virtual environments • SIMNET • 300 soldiers in tank and aircraft simulators interacting • 10baseT standard • 100baseT optional at CoE • 1.25 Gbit/s reasonable, with effort

25. Recommendations • Promising application areas: • Design, manufacturing and marketing • Medicine and health care • Hazardous operations • Training • Two special projects • Modeling the human body • Knowledge transfer

26. Learning Objectives • Be able to describe the current areas of research related to SE. • Be able to draw a system diagram differentiating teleoperation and virtual environments. • Be able to define augmented reality. • Be able to distinguish the NRC definition of Presence from Ellis’ definition. • Be able to define the distinctions between a simulator and a virtual environment. • Be able to describe common characteristics of SEs. • Be able to define the symptoms of sopite syndrome.