Proceedings of the IEEE 1996 Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium

We describe the design and implementation of a video based augmented reality system capable of overlaying three dimensional graphical objects on live video of dynamic environments. The key feature of the system is that it is completely uncalibrated: it does not use any metric information about the calibration parameters of the camera or the 3D locations and dimensions of the environment's objects.... View full abstract»

Interactive video and television viewers should have the power to control their viewing position. To realize this, we introduce the concept of immersive video, which employs computer vision and computer graphics technologies to provide viewers of live events a sense of total immersion by providing the viewer with a “virtual camera”. Immersive video uses multiple videos of an event, cap... View full abstract»

The paper reviews a decade of work in applying virtual reality to medicine. Beginning with a brief history of simulations and surgery, we present a background to surgery simulators and then discuss the problem of limited human body models in past systems. We present our work at developing human body models beginning with the first virtual reality leg simulator in 1989. This model allowed simple te... View full abstract»

We present an approach to applying virtual reality in architectural design and collaborative visualization which emphasizes the use of multiple perspectives. These perspectives, including multiple mental models as well as multiple visual viewpoints, allow virtual reality to be applied in the earlier, more creative, phases of the design process, rather than just as a walkthrough of the final design... View full abstract»

The number of specialized medical doctors is decreasing. It is important to assist doctors in their operation of surgical tools. To solve this problem, we propose a distributed VR system using multimedia telecommunication for training, diagnosis, and assistance in surgery. To realize this system, it is important to exchange high quality moving pictures. We use high speed optical fiber network with... View full abstract»

Investigates the trade-off of different network topologies and messaging protocols for multi-user virtual environment systems. We present message distribution techniques appropriate for constructing scalable multi-user systems for a variety of network characteristics. Hierarchical system designs utilizing servers that manage message distribution for entities in separate regions of a virtual enviro... View full abstract»

The research presented investigated the effects of haptic display modalities on human performance in virtual environments. Force feedback information was presented through visual, auditory and haptic feedback modalities. Results show that haptic feedback greatly increases performance and reduces error rates compared with the open loop case. Redundant haptic information (two modalities at the same ... View full abstract»

This paper presents a new method of rendering for interaction with 3D virtual space with the use of gaze detection devices. In this method, hierarchical geometric models of graphic objects are constructed prior to the rendering process. The rendering process first calculates the visual acuity, which represents the importance of a graphic object for a human operator, from the gaze position of the o... View full abstract»

Three virtual worlds have been built to investigate the effect of immersive, multisensory computer-generated experiences on learning topics in science. Currently targeted at high school and beginning college students, these worlds address Newtonian mechanics, electrostatics, and molecular structure and dynamics. Data has been collected on usability and learning through questionnaires, pre- and pos... View full abstract»

Advanced display technologies have made the virtual exploration of relatively complex models feasible in many applications. Unfortunately, only a few human interfaces allow natural interaction with the environment. Moreover in surgical applications, such realistic interaction requires real time rendering of volumetric data-placing an overwhelming performance burden on the system. We report on a co... View full abstract»

Virtual reality has made computer interfaces more intuitive but not more intelligent. This paper shows how a rule-based expert system can be combined with multimodal input and natural language techniques to add intelligence to the interface. In this way, virtual worlds can be built which recognize and respond intelligently to user actions. Coupling voice, gesture, body position and context togethe... View full abstract»

There is a natural desire to make multi-user virtual environments large in spatial extent, in numbers of objects, and in numbers of users interacting with the environment. However, doing this brings up several problems: efficiently managing the flow of large amounts of data between large numbers of users, representing precise position and velocity information about objects that are arrayed across ... View full abstract»

Future airborne crewstations are currently being designed that will incorporate multisensory virtual displays to convey operationally relevant information to crew members. In addition, these displays and associated controls will be designed to adapt to the changing psychological and physiological state of the user, and the tactical/environmental state of the external world. In support of this desi... View full abstract»

The paper proposes aligning perspective contours with 3D objects without knowledge of the correspondence between 2D image points and a projected 3D model, by matching some global image characteristics from the images. It was found that simply using image moments was not sufficient for registration, but converting the image with orthogonal polynomials gave good results. The proposed approach only r... View full abstract»

Fear of flying is a serious problem that affects millions of individuals. Exposure therapy for fear of flying is an effective therapy technique. However, exposure therapy is also expensive, logistically difficult to arrange, and presents significant problems of patient confidentiality and potential embarrassment. We have developed a virtual airplane for use in fear of flying therapy. Using the vir... View full abstract»

This paper describes an experimental exploratory information visualization system under development at PNNL for integrating multimedia data and visualizing the contents of large multimedia databases. Our system prototype, named Starlight, represents multimedia corpora graphically as collections of icons in 3-space. Each icon in the information display represents an individual element of a multimed... View full abstract»

Walkthrough simulation is effective for design and presentation of buildings or urban space. The paper presents a method of implementing a new interface device for locomotion in virtual space. The walker wears omni directional sliding devices on the feet, which generate the feel of walking while the position of the walker is fixed in the physical world. A hoop is set around the walker's waist, by ... View full abstract»

A general algorithm for decimating unstructured discretized data sets is presented. The discretized space may be a planar triangulation, a general 3D surface triangulation, or a 3D tetrahedrization. The decimation algorithm enforces Dirichlet boundary conditions, uses only existing vertices, and assumes manifold geometry. Local dynamic vertex removal is performed without history information, while... View full abstract»

In a virtual environment with multiple participants, it is necessary that the user's actions be replicated by synthetic human forms. Whole-body digitizers would be the most realistic solution for capturing the individual participant's human form, however the best of the digitizers available are not interactive and are therefore not suitable for real-time interaction. Usually, a limited number of s... View full abstract»

Virtual environment (VE) applications involve many different tasks, including interfacing with input and output devices, providing responsive user interaction, and simulating a dynamic environment. The variety and number of tasks lends the application to a distributed computing system, where different tasks are performed by different computing resources. A critical issue that arises from such a de... View full abstract»

We examine the use of decision networks in animating virtual agents. We have developed a system that allows the realization of multiple, parallel behaviors for an agent. The networks we utilize, called PaT-Nets, are used both to represent individual behaviors and also to encode rules of engagement between agents. The multiple networks simultaneously attached to an individual agent are used to cont... View full abstract»

We propose a new concept of visual/haptic interfaces called WYSIWYF display. The proposed concept provides correct visual/haptic registration using a vision based object tracking technique and a video keying technique so that what the user can see via a visual interface is consistent with what he/she can feel through a haptic interface. Using Chroma Keying, a live video image of the user's hand is... View full abstract»