Monthly Archives: February 2014

Project Brainstorm

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Here are some notes from our class discussion today.  Please post comments as to which projects you would be interested on working on and feel free to add in more information.  We will determine project teams next week.

Idea 1: Alteration of Physical Spaces

Enable the rapid prototyping physical spaces, simulate visual impairments, and simulate different users (such as child height).

Idea 2: Virtual Experiences

Simulate virtual creatures such as from the film the Birds, virtual zombies, murder mysteries or to create the feeling of what it is like to be chased.  Could also be for education, such as with the Magic School Bus.  Finally, create the experiences seen in video games.

Idea 3: Create an Augmented Reality Visualization

Overlay virtual stats onto a virtual map.  Visualize large amounts of data in 3D.  Create immersive visualizations of music.  Create a GPS based AR game.

About the projects
The idea for projects for the class is to generate a working prototype by the end of the semester.  This means that the project need more be a proof of concept than a refined product.  We will have weekly progress posts that will demonstrate each group and individuals efforts and progress.  At this point is perfectly acceptable to aim high and scale back later.

Reading 5

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For class 3/3/14
Post Comments by 11:59 pm on 3/2/14

What it is like to see: A sensorimotor theory of perceptual experience
by O’Regan and Noe
http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/Synthese/MyinFinal.html

Discussion (Pick 5)

  1. Do you agree that the authors theory “provides a unifying framework in which to consider the relations between sensory experience in different sensory modalities …, and the relation between sensory experience and other human activities.”? Briefly discuss the merits or the shortcomings of the authors theory.
  2. What do you think of the idea of “feeling the presence of redness”?  Do you agree that this feeling can be described with second-order awareness?  Would it be possible to give a robot or AI the ability to feel the presence of redness?
  3. What are you initial thoughts on the ideas presented for “change blindness”? For examples, you can watch a few examples from http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/#CB.  In what ways do you see us being able to exploit this in VR applications?
  4. While the authors mention machines, the focus for the article is on humans.  Do you think that a machine could have sensation, perception, and/or awareness? If so, describe with examples for each.  If not, describe why not for each.
  5. You may find a term or topic that you are unfamiliar with.  If you would like to, do a little research on the subject (wikipedia would be a good place to start). Briefly describe your understanding of this concept and how confident you are about this understanding.
  6. Find a topic that you interesting, dubious, or curious and explain why.  Write at least a paragraph of explanation and add citations if warranted.

Reading 4

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For class 2/24/14
Post Comments by 11:59 pm on 2/23/14

Virtual Superheroes: Using Superpowers in Virtual Reality to Encourage Prosocial Behavior

Robin S. Rosenberg, Shawnee L. Baughman, and Jeremy N. Bailenson
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3559425/

This is a press release that describes the project for a more general audience

http://www.livescience.com/26752-superheroes-boost-helpful-behavior.html

Astrojumper: Motivating Exercise with an Immersive Virtual Reality Exergame
Samantha Finkelstein*, Andrea Nickel, Zachary Lipps, Tiffany Barnes, Zachary Wartell and Evan A. Suma
http://people.ict.usc.edu/~suma/papers/finkelstein-presence2011.pdf

Related media:


Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZZmommFnBE 


Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0slLnGhcEC4 

 

Discussion 1 (Pick 3)

  1. What do you think of the overall setup of the experiment?  Do you agree with the approach?
  2. What do you think of the metrics used in the study?  Do you think these provide an adequate measure of prosocial behavior?
  3. If you were going to change something in the experiment what would it be and why?
  4. What other prosocial behaviors would you like to test?  Would you design your experiment in the same way?
  5. You may find a term or topic that you are unfamiliar with.  If you would like to, do a little research on the subject (wikipedia would be a good place to start). Briefly describe your understanding of this concept and how confident you are about this understanding.
  6. Find a topic that you interesting, dubious, or curious and explain why.

Discussion 2 (Pick 3)

  1. What design decisions do you think were the wisest in the Astrojumper system?  Which decisions do you think could be improved upon?
  2. Do you think using a CAVE was the best VR setup for this system?  Why or why not?
  3. What do you think of the measures used in the experiment?  If you were to add another measure, what would you add? Do you think of the heart rate being monitored when it was?  Do you think this was possibly problematic?
  4. Pick one of the results and briefly discuss why it is interesting to you.
  5. You may find a term or topic that you are unfamiliar with.  If you would like to, do a little research on the subject (wikipedia would be a good place to start). Briefly describe your understanding of this concept and how confident you are about this understanding.
  6. Find a topic that you interesting, dubious, or curious and explain why.

 

 

Reading 3

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For class 2/17/14
Post Comments by 11:59 pm on 2/16/14

Defining virtual reality: Dimensions determining telepresence
Jonathan Steuer
http://ww.cybertherapy.info/pages/telepresence.pdf 

Discussion (Pick 5 of items below.  Each response should be at least a paragraph)

  1. In what ways do you think the author’s view on Telepresence differs from Slater’s use of presence?
  2. The author lists a number of examples of presence without proximity (e.g. telephone, letters, etc).  Either arguing for or against one of the examples being indicative of presence.
  3. The author writes that “redundancy serves to further enhance vividness”.   Do you agree? Is sensory information often “redundant” in our daily lives?  Why or why not?
  4. The author writes that there is a trade-off between bandwidth and depth for senses.  In what ways would you for see trying to balance this trade-off in VR?
  5. Do you agree with the way Engagement is defined in this article?  Do you feel like matches the previous definition in the Slater paper?  Do you agree that engagement is achieved when we “feel for and with the characters”?
  6. Choose 4 items on Figure 3 that you believe are in the wrong place and state where you think they belong (more or less interactive and more or less vivid) and why
  7. Do you feel the final paragraph of the article is alarmist or justified?  Why or why not?
  8. Find a topic that you interesting, dubious, or curious and explain why.

Assignment 2: Project Brain Storming

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For class 2/19

Brainstorm project some  ideas.  These need not be refined at this point.  Don’t worry about knowing how to accomplish your goal.  Just try to think of projects that you would be interested in pursuing.

For class, bring in an image or video and describe to the class what you would like to do.  Be prepared to answer for questions.  We we refine these ideas for the next assignment

More 3D Projection Links

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Interview with Director of the Willow Sweater CAVE Music Video, Filip Sterckx

Interesting article on using CAVEs for 3D projections: http://www.roadtovr.com/filip-sterckx-interview-willow-sweater-music-video-cave/

The music video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl8ptneR1Kk

Another piece of art can be found here: http://vimeo.com/54434609

Nike also did a 3D projection based system: http://vimeo.com/42464673

Finally, here is a new ride at Epcot that uses 3D projections: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkyGsLqjJHU