scholarly journals User-Defined Gestures with Physical Props in Virtual Reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (ISS) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Marco Moran-Ledesma ◽  
Oliver Schneider ◽  
Mark Hancock
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Virtual Objects ◽  
Open World ◽  
Elicitation Study ◽  
Agreement Score ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Elicitation Studies ◽  
Context Free ◽  
Context Free Grammars

When interacting with virtual reality (VR) applications like CAD and open-world games, people may want to use gestures as a means of leveraging their knowledge from the physical world. However, people may prefer physical props over handheld controllers to input gestures in VR. We present an elicitation study where 21 participants chose from 95 props to perform manipulative gestures for 20 CAD-like and open-world game-like referents. When analyzing this data, we found existing methods for elicitation studies were insufficient to describe gestures with props, or to measure agreement with prop selection (i.e., agreement between sets of items). We proceeded by describing gestures as context-free grammars, capturing how different props were used in similar roles in a given gesture. We present gesture and prop agreement scores using a generalized agreement score that we developed to compare multiple selections rather than a single selection. We found that props were selected based on their resemblance to virtual objects and the actions they afforded; that gesture and prop agreement depended on the referent, with some referents leading to similar gesture choices, while others led to similar prop choices; and that a small set of carefully chosen props can support multiple gestures.

scholarly journals Back to reality: transition techniques from short HMD-based virtual experiences to the physical world

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Horst ◽  
Ramtin Naraghi-Taghi-Off ◽  
Linda Rau ◽  
Ralf Dörner
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
User Study ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
Common Presentation ◽  
Presentation Media ◽  
Virtual Experiences ◽  
Short Times

AbstractEvery Virtual Reality (VR) experience has to end at some point. While there already exist concepts to design transitions for users to enter a virtual world, their return from the physical world should be considered, as well, as it is a part of the overall VR experience. We call the latter outro-transitions. In contrast to offboarding of VR experiences, that takes place after taking off VR hardware (e.g., HMDs), outro-transitions are still part of the immersive experience. Such transitions occur more frequently when VR is experienced periodically and for only short times. One example where transition techniques are necessary is in an auditorium where the audience has individual VR headsets available, for example, in a presentation using PowerPoint slides together with brief VR experiences sprinkled between the slides. The audience must put on and take off HMDs frequently every time they switch from common presentation media to VR and back. In a such a one-to-many VR scenario, it is challenging for presenters to explore the process of multiple people coming back from the virtual to the physical world at once. Direct communication may be constrained while VR users are wearing an HMD. Presenters need a tool to indicate them to stop the VR session and switch back to the slide presentation. Virtual visual cues can help presenters or other external entities (e.g., automated/scripted events) to request VR users to end a VR session. Such transitions become part of the overall experience of the audience and thus must be considered. This paper explores visual cues as outro-transitions from a virtual world back to the physical world and their utility to enable presenters to request VR users to end a VR session. We propose and investigate eight transition techniques. We focus on their usage in short consecutive VR experiences and include both established and novel techniques. The transition techniques are evaluated within a user study to draw conclusions on the effects of outro-transitions on the overall experience and presence of participants. We also take into account how long an outro-transition may take and how comfortable our participants perceived the proposed techniques. The study points out that they preferred non-interactive outro-transitions over interactive ones, except for a transition that allowed VR users to communicate with presenters. Furthermore, we explore the presenter-VR user relation within a presentation scenario that uses short VR experiences. The study indicates involving presenters that can stop a VR session was not only negligible but preferred by our participants.

Who is in the Room? Notification for Intrusions While in Virtual Reality

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 521-525
Author(s):  
Aaron Crowson ◽  
Zachary H. Pugh ◽  
Michael Wilkinson ◽  
Christopher B. Mayhorn
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Auditory Modality ◽  
Oculus Rift ◽  
Head Mounted Display ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Orientation Type

The development of head-mounted display virtual reality systems (e.g., Oculus Rift, HTC Vive) has resulted in an increasing need to represent the physical world while immersed in the virtual. Current research has focused on representing static objects in the physical room, but there has been little research into notifying VR users of changes in the environment. This study investigates how different sensory modalities affect noticeability and comprehension of notifications designed to alert head-mounted display users when a person enters his/her area of use. In addition, this study investigates how the use of an orientation type notification aids in perception of alerts that manifest outside a virtual reality users’ visual field. Results of a survey indicated that participants perceived the auditory modality as more effective regardless of notification type. An experiment corroborated these findings for the person notifications; however, the visual modality was in practice more effective for orientation notifications.

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