Title of thesis REDUCING LATENCY IN A VIRTUAL REALITY-BASED

TRAINING APPLICATION

I, YULITA HANUM BINTI P ISKANDAR hereby allow my thesis to be placed at

the Information Resource Centre (IRC) ofUniversiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP)

with the following conditions:

I. The thesis becomes the property ofUTP.

2. The IRC ofUTP may make copies of the thesis for academic purposes only.

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0 Non-confidential

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The contents of the thesis will remain confidential for _____ years.

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Signature of Author

Permanent Address: 2-4-N Taman Boundary,

Lintang Sempadan, PUSAT SUMBER MAKLUMAT I I 400, Penang UNlVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS

Date : IO'h July 2006

Endorsed by:

Name of Supervisor:

~:~o~::rion Technology and lafonnatioft Sytrem• Universiri Teknolog1 PETRONAS 31750 Tronoh . oeril.l.: Darul ~Wzuan, Malaysia

))ate : I 0 July 2006

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS

Approval by Supervisor

The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommend to The Postgraduate

Studies Programme for acceptance, a thesis entitled

Reducing Latency in a Virtual Reality-based Training Application

submitted by

Yulita Han urn binti P Iskandar

for the fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

IO'h July 2006 Date

Signature

Main Supervisor

Date

Co-Supervisor I

Co-Supervisor 2

Masters of Science in Information Technology

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DR. ABAS MD. SAID

IO'h July 2006

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UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS

Reducing Latency in a Virtual Reality-based Training Application

by

Yulita Hanum binti P Iskandar

A THESIS

SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE STUDIES PROGRAMME

AS A REQUIREMENT FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTERS OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Information & Communication Technology Programme

BANDAR SERI ISKANDAR,

PERAK

JULY 2006

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DECLARATION

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the thesis is based on my original work except for quotations and

citations, which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that it has not been

previously or concurrently submitted for any other degree at UTP or other institutions.

Signature : -......-c'f'-1.-"-'''-----

Name : YULITA HANUM BINTI P ISKANDAR

Date : 101h July 2006

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillah be to ALLAH, the Most Gracious and Most Merciful.

One of the greatest pleasures of writing thesis is acknowledging the efforts of many people whose names may not appear on the cover, but without those hardworking, cooperation, friendship and understanding, producing this thesis could have been impossible.

Personally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor Dr. Abas Md Said for his tireless effort in guiding and giving me valuable advice throughout this project. His seemingly endless energy and dedication to academic excellence have been a true source of inspiration to me. He also gave me unfailing encouragement and support in my learning process. Based on his experience, he had made constructive comments and suggestions to highlight my weak points in helping me in completing my projects and improved my communication skills. Without his constant guidance and strong support, I would not have produced this thesis and achieved as a researcher as well as a scholar.

A token of appreciation goes to Mr. Mohamed Nordin Zakaria, for valuable information and guidance in collecting and analyzing resources, without him it will be hard to make this project a reality.

Thank you to Dr. Kamil Mahmud, Head of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Programme for his help in providing the facilities and equipments needed for the successful completion of my research. I wish to thank the staff of Postgraduate Studies Programme for assisting and helping me in time of need and support.

I would like to thank Dr. Shaikh Malik for reading and editing my thesis in such a short notice.

I acknowledge the perceptive comments by all colleagues and friends especially Azwandy Mohamad, Salisa Abdul Rahman and Zuraini Samsuddin who collectively create a work culture that support and nurture my learning process and personal development.

Finally yet importantly, my highest respect and gratitude is to my parents who had spared efforts and hardship to provide me with all possible opportunities for a good education during the past few years that I have been so absorbed with my studies. Also, to all people who involved directly or indirectly. Thank you.

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ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

Overall latency is the elapsed time from input of human motion to the immediate response of the input in the display. Apparently, latency is one of the most frequently cited shortcomings of current Virtual Reality (VR) applications. To compensate latency, previous prediction mechanisms insert a complex mathematical algorithm, which may not be appropriate for complex virtual training applications. More complex VR simulations most likely will impose greater computation burdens and resulted in the increase of latencies.

In order to overcome latency problem, this research is an attempt to suggest a new prediction algorithm based on heuristic that could be used to develop a more effective and general system for virtual training applications. The heuristic-based predictor provides a platform to utilize the heuristic power of human along with the algorithmic power, geometry accuracy of motion-planning programs and biomechanical laws of human. Heuristic algorithm is an important module widely used for humanoid robots and avatars in VR systems. However, to the best of the researcher's knowledge, the heuristic approach has not been used as a single prediction algorithm for compensating latency in virtual training systems.

In order to find out whether the new prediction algorithm is acceptable and possibly could reduce latency, a fast synchronization squash-game simulation was selected as a study source. This research analyzed the latencies of all subcomponents of this system and designed prediction algorithm that allows high-speed interaction.

In measuring the performance on various prediction methods, this research also makes a comparison in real tasks among 1) the heuristic-based prediction, 2) the Grey system prediction and 3) the one without prediction using different sample rates. Findings indicated that heuristic-based algorithm is an accurate prediction method to compensate latency in virtual training. Apparently, heuristic-based prediction and Grey system prediction are significantly better than the one without prediction. When heuristic-based prediction and Grey system prediction were compared, heuristic-based prediction was in fact a better predictor. Overall findings indicated that heuristic­based prediction is efficient, robust and easier to implement.

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ABSTRAK

ABSTRAK

Penyelengahan merupakan an tara faktor yang memberi impak negatif kepada aplikasi realiti maya. Sistem penyelengahan ini didefinasikan sebagai kekangan masa yang diambil oleh skrin komputer untuk mempaparkan pergerakan yang pantas. Bagi mengatasi masalah ini, para penyelidik menggunakan kaedah jangkaan. Satu masalah dengan kaedah j angkaan ialah ia mengandungi konsep matematik kompleks yang kurang sesuai digunakan bersama aplikasi latihan maya yang kebetulan juga kompleks. Hal ini akan menyebabkan simulasi realiti maya yang kompleks akan menambahkan beban pengiraan dan secara langsung meningkatkan tahap penyelengahan kepada sesuatu aplikasi.

Kajian ini mencadangkan satu kaedah jangkaan barn untuk mengatasi masalah penyelengahan yang dikenali sebagai heuristik diharapkan dapat membina aplikasi latihan maya yang lebih efektif. Kaedah heuristik ini adalah gabungan tabii manusia, algoritma, pelan geometri gerakan yang tepa!, dan biomekanika manusia. Sungguhpun kaedah heuristik algoritma kerap digunakan dalam aplikasi realiti maya, tetapi kaedah berkenaan belum pemah diaplikasikan untuk mengatasi masalah penyelengahan.

Kajian ini menggunakan simulasi squasy, iaitu sukan yang melibatkan pergerakan yang pantas, sebagai dasar penyelidikan bagi tujuan mencuba keberkesanan kaedah heuristik. Seterusnya kajian ini menganalisa penyelengahan yang terdapat dalam setiap sub-sub komponen sistem sekaligus mencorak algoritma jangkaan bagi interaksi yang pantas.

Perbandingan keupayaan tiga kaedah jangkaan iaitu: I) kaedah heuristik, 2) kaedah "Grey" dan 3) kaedah tanpa sebarang jangkaan dijalankan. Perbandingan ini dibuat bagi kadar sampel yang berbeza melalui tugas nyata (real tasks). Dapatan kajian ini telah membuktikan kaedah heuristik adalah kaedah yang tepa! untuk mengatasi masalah penyelengahan. Kajian ini juga membuktikan kaedah heuristik dan kaedah "Grey" adalah lebih baik daripada kaedah tanpa sebarang jangkaan. Dapatan kajian juga telah menunjukkan keupayaan kaedah heuristik meningkat berbanding kaedah "Grey". Berdasarkan kajian ini, secara keseluruhan kaedah heuristik lebih efektif, lebih tegap dan lebih mudah untuk diimplementasikan.

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