For class 4/30/13
Post Comments by 11:59 PM on Monday 4/29/13

I wanted this reading to be somewhat light.  This is a forward looking article from about 10 years ago. It brings up many issues we have discussed in class and some new ones as well.  The posting wont be due until Monday as opposed to Sunday.

http://www.scienceclarified.com/scitech/Virtual-Reality/Which-World-Is-Real-The-Future-of-Virtual-Reality.html

Discussion

Write a few paragraphs about your thoughts and reactions to this article.  Feel free to respond to others comments.

 For class 4/23/13
Post Comments by 11:59 PM on Sunday 4/21/13

Are Driving Simulators Effective Tools for Evaluating Novice Drivers’ Hazard Anticipation, Speed Management, and Attention Maintenance Skills
Elsa Chan, Anuj K. Pradhan, Alexander Pollatsek, Michael A. Knodler,d and Donald L. Fishere
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847810000185
or
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2923851/

Discussion (pick 3)

1. Comment on the quote from Evans 2004 about driving simulators.  Do you feel like this can be generalized for other behavior research? Do you feel like this criticism is true for all VR systems?
2. Comment on the experiment.  What do you think was done well/ well thought out?  What would you change and/or add?
3. Choose one of the questions in the discussion section (p.351).  Do you agree with the authors analysis?  Why or why not
4. How would you use the results of this experiment to create better drivers? Describe an implementation you could see one creating.
5. Find a topic that you interesting, dubious, or curious and explain why.

For class 4/16/13
Post Comments by 11:59 PM on Monday 4/15/13

1. In the background Introduction section (pp. 103-111), choose a study that sounds interesting, odd, or strange to you.  Describe why.
2. Do you think the results of these experiments would be different in a CAVE environment?  Why or why not.
3. If you were going to do another experiment in this series, what would you want to study?  Briefly describe.
4. Based on the results of these experiments, how would you design a virtual learning environment?
5. Find a topic that you interesting, dubious, or curious and explain why.

For class 4/9/13
Post Comments by 11:59 PM on 4/7/13

Human Tails: Ownership and Control of Extended Humanoid Avatars
William Steptoe, Anthony Steed, and Mel Slater
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/7049050/Steptoe_ieeevr13.pdf
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2zbZLBUqwU 

1. What do you think of the control the control scheme for the tail?  If you were to redesign it what would would you do?  If you were to add other kinds of feedback besides making the tail purely visual, what would you do?

2. What do you think of the Threat design?  Do you think this threat stage helps determine ownership?  Use the results shown in the paper to back up your argument

3. Based on the material in the tables and charts propose a hypothesis that is not outlined in the paper.  Discuss for a paragraph.
4. Find a topic that you interesting, dubious, or curious and explain why.

Kurihara

Simply write a paragraph with your impressions and discussion of this technote. Things you can use as motivation if you are not sure where to begin:

• What do you think of the approach of the researchers?
• What do you think could have been done to improve this experiment?
• What other kinds of materials do you think would be interesting to explore?
• What would be the next direction you would think of taking this project?

Our reading for this week will be for class discussion on Thursday, March 21st. Discussion comments are due Wednesday, March 20th by 11:59 PM.

Questioning naturalism in 3D user interfaces
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2330687
By Doug A. Bowman, Ryan P . McMahan, and Eric D. Ragan
Communications of the ACM 2012 vol. 55 (9)

Note: The above link to ACM.org requires you to be on a campus Wi-Fi / wired network. Alternately, you can log into the UW Libraries site and retrieve the article PDF through this link.

Discussion: Please answer at least two of the questions below with at least a paragraph-length comment.

Question 1

Effective naturalistic 3DUIs may require higher fidelity input and feedback hardware than “magic” (i.e. non-naturalistic) 3DUIs. For some techniques especially, such as redirected walking, this hardware becomes elaborate to the point of impracticality. Do you agree or disagree with these statements, and why?

Question 2

Naturalistic 3DUIs are often successful when they plausibly recreate an interaction technique, or “metaphor”, previously used in physical reality. Non-naturalistic 3DUIs do not always have physical or real-world equivalents. Does this difference make non-naturalistic 3DUIs a more creative possibility space, or merely make them more difficult to develop and evaluate?

Question 3

Over the years, interactions that were considered arbitrary, unnatural or indirect have become commonplace—“natural”, even. This might include writing with a pen, typing on a keyboard, or moving a computer mouse in relation to a pointer on a screen. Therefore, are “natural” interactions best defined as “common and relatable” techniques, or as a set of techniques imposed by physical limitations?

Question 4

Suppose the attempts to develop the best possible system for high-fidelity three-dimensional user interfaces reach two divergent endpoints:

1. Ultimate “naturalism”: a matter-manipulating “display” system, as imagined by Ivan Sutherland in “The Ultimate Display”, which could support any arbitrary physical interaction with perfect fidelity. Essentially, the system integrates “virtual reality” directly into the physical reality the user experiences normally.
2. Ultimate “magic”: a highly sophisticated brain-computer interface, which could support arbitrarily abstract interactions unbound by physical limitations. This system allows “virtual-reality” to entirely replace the physical reality currently experienced by the user.

Based on your valuations of naturalistic and “magic” 3DUIs, which would you prefer? Which would be more practical? More powerful?

For class 3/12/13
Post Comments by 11:59 PM on 3/10/13

Disney’s Aladdin: first steps toward storytelling in virtual reality
Randy Pausch, Jon Snoddy, Robert Taylor, Scott Watson, Eric Haseltine
http://ivizlab.sfu.ca/arya/Papers/ACM/SIGGRAPH-96/Storytelling%20in%20VR.pdf

Serious games continuum: Between games for purpose and experiential environments for purpose
Tim Marsh
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875952110000224

Note: This article requires you to be on campus. You can log into sight with your netid through this link: http://sfx.wisconsin.edu/wisc?sid=google&auinit=T&aulast=Marsh&atitle=Serious+games+continuum:+Between+games+for+purpose+and+experiential+environments+for+purpose&title=Entertainment+computing&volume=2&issue=2&date=2011&spage=61&issn=1875-9521

Discussion:

Disney’s Aladdin: first steps toward storytelling in virtual reality (Pick 3)

Do you feel like storytelling in VR has evolved to the author’s hope?  If why, what do you think has slowed it’s growth.  If yes, descibe examples that you think show this evolution.

Are you surprised by the lack of head rotation?  What did you think contributed most to this result?  Would you expect the same type of head rotation profile in the CAVE?

Which of the general observations do you find most useful for trying to design a project?  In what ways could you use this insight for your project?

In the survey, pick either a result the you found interesting or a question you found curious and briefly discuss.  Do you think it made sense to present the results grouped by gender?

Do you feel like the research challenges are still relevant or have been solved?  Choose one of the  challenges that you think would be interesting to try to explore.  Discuss one idea of how you might start to attempt to undertake this challenge.

Serious games continuum: Between games for purpose and experiential environments for purpose

Do you agree with the author’s definition of serious games (p 63)?  Do you agree with the continuum on Figure 1?  Can something be a game and have no gaming characteristics for experience?

Choose one of the examples listed in section 3.x.  Find and list a  video or external reference for the example.  Discuss how you would position this example on the continuum.

Do you agree with the author’s discussion point that serious gaming is a form of cost-effective VR?  Do you think all of VR could be considered a form of serious gaming?

For class 3/5/13
Post Comments by 11:59 PM on 3/3/13

Towards Virtual Reality for the Masses: 10 Years of Research at Disney’s VR Studio
Mark Mine
 http://www.dvschafer.com/files/disney_vr.pdf

Towards a model for a virtual reality experience: the virtual subjectiveness
N Parés, R Parés
http://www.dtic.upf.edu/~npares/publicacions/VR_Model_ParesPares_PresenceV15N5-2006.pdf

Discussion

Paper 1 (write a paragraph for each)

1. For the listed systems choose three design decisions that you thought were wise.  Describe what issues you thought these decisions addressed.
2. For the listed systems choose three design decisions that you thought were strange or misguided.  Describe you issues with the choices and what other approaches you think they could have taken.
3. What jumped out to you from this paper?  This could be something you found interesting or curious.

Paper 2 (pick 3, write 1 paragraph for each)

1. The authors present another view on virtual reality.  Compare and contrast this with one of the previous definitions we have looked at in class (or another view you have found externally).  How would you define VR?
2. Do you agree with breakdown between MM and VR?  Why are why not? Do you agree that there is a continuum between the two?
3. How do you feel about the idea of non 1:1 mappings of physical and virtual environments described on page 531?   Do you agree with the authors premise?  If so, in what kinds of applications could you foresee this being useful?  If not, in what kinds of problems do you foresee this type of mapping having?
4. What do you think of the breakdown of VS?  Do you agree with the authors segmentation in Figure 10?  In what ways would you equate or differentiate it to the ideas of presence we have discussed in earlier classes?
5. Do you agree with the authors that VS was far superior for “Pirates” over “Hercules”?  If not, describe why.  If you do, describe what “Hercules” could have done to better its VS
6. Find a topic that you interesting, dubious, or curious and explain why.

For class 2/28/13
Post Comments by 11:00 AM on 2/26/13

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 Tele-presence 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.

Editors Note

I was originally thinking we would read the paper below for this week.  I eventually decided that while I really enjoy this paper, it brought up many of the same issues from the article from last week.  I eventually selected the new reading for this week as I felt it was a good bridge between what we have talked about up til this point in the semester and what we will talk about moving forward.  I am adding a link to this paper in case you are curious.

 

Rethinking virtual reality: Simulation and the deconstruction of the image
David Gunkela
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295030009388375
or
http://gunkelweb.com/articles/rethinking_vr.pdf

For class 2/19/13
Post Comments by 11:59 pm on 2/17/13

Virtual Reality as the End of the Enlightenment Project
by Simon Penny

Please print out these articles and bring them with you to class on Tuesday for discussion.  Alternatively, you can bring digital version of the reading with you.

Discussion

1. What do you think the author is trying to have the reader take away from this piece?   Do you feel this piece is effective overall? What points do you think were effective/convincing for you and which were not? (Write at least 1-2 paragraphs)
2.  Finally, find a topic that you interesting, dubious, or curious and explain why.  (Write at least 1 paragraph of explanation and add citations if warranted)
3. Choose three questions from the following (each should be 3 to 4 sentences)

• Choose one of the examples the author lists of pre-1950 VR.  How would you compare these types of systems to VR systems of today?
• The paper predicts that a future that we seem not to have arrived to.  Why do you think this disparity exists?  What things do you feel like have come to fruition and things do you feel like are still in the future.
• Do you agree with the author that VR is different than tradition mediums such as film, television and so on? In what ways is VR similar and in what ways is it different?
• The author argues that inventors often don’t see the downsides of their own inventions.  Do you feel that this is the case for VR?  Does VR present a more powerful means of presenting images for companies than other forms of media?
• What do you think about the authors take on “how real is VR?”  Do you find the passenger analogy apt? (state why)
• What do you think of the Battletech example? Do you feel like video games have taken the role of simulated Interactive media that the author suggests?  What do you think of the authors argument about “undiminished feeling of free will”?
• What do you think of the section on surveillance?  Do you feel like it fits with the rest of the article?  Describe why or why not
• What do you think of the quote from Lanier about the cup? Do you agree with the author or Lanier.  Why or why not?
• The author states that the R in VR is misleading.  Do you agree?
• The author implies that being inside of a simulated environment can cause the senses to become out of alignment.  Do you agree that this is a concern?  Does the section on cognitive plasticity make this concern seem less threatening?
• The author brings up the idea that humans only navigate a 2.5D space so that multi-dimensional data representations are not useful.  Do you agree?  Could VR provide a better approach to multi-dimensional data analysis?
• Do you agree there is no need for a body in VR?  Do you agree that Randy Walser and Eric Gulichsen are misguided in their quote?  Should we be concerned about alternative bodies?

For class 2/12/13
Post Comments by 11:59 pm on 2/10/13

 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

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?

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?

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.

Finally, find a topic that you interesting, dubious, or curious and explain why.  Write at least a paragraph of explanation and add citations if warranted.