The Future of Immersive Virtual Environments: issues and

challenges

Dr. Xiangyu Wang

Acknowledge to Dr. Doug Bowman’s lecture notes.

Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry

• Visualization & presentation of designs and project management information

• Coordination/communication between stakeholders

Architectural Walkthrough

• Real-time and interactive

• Real scale

• Depth cues

2008 Doug Bowman, Virginia Tech

What can be done more?

• Allow visualization and creation/modification

• VE/CAD integration

Information: information-rich VEs

• Add information about design rationale, construction schedule, materials used.

• Understand complex relationships between various types of information

Virtual-SAP 2.0

Education

• Constructivist theory of learning– ‘Playful’ learning by doing– Build one’s own mental model of the concept

• Possible interactions:– Navigate to view scene from various locations– Explore parameter space– Test “what-if” scenarios

Portable classroom-based immersive VE for education

2008 Doug Bowman, Virginia Tech

Future Directions

• All-Modal immersive virtual system– Visual, Auditory, Haptic, Olfactory, Gustatory,

Vestibular, and Kinesthetic.– Direct display to the brain?

Future Directions: encumbrances removal

• Approaches to input/tracking– Wireless transmission– Vision-based

• Approaches to output/display– Displays in the world– Displays and display generators worn by user– Autostereoscopic displays: no glasses

Autostereoscopic displays

2008 Doug Bowman, Virginia Tech

Future Directions: Mapping between components

• Huge potential for empirical research

• For example, – what navigation strategies do users adopt in

fully immersive displays?– Which VE displays are the most useful for

decision-making tasks in the construction industry?

Future Directions: Platform Immigration of 3D UIs

• Different displays, devices, etc. imply different UIs.

• Example: migrate a UI from HMD to CAVE platform

Future Directions: Effective collaboration

• Issues:– Awareness– Communication– Floor control– Cooperation– Single-user 3D UI v.s. multi-user 3D UI?

2008 Doug Bowman, Virginia Tech

• Group presentation: – May 26, 6:00-8:00 in the lab on the fifth floor– each group 20-30 minutes. – Everyone needs to talk– Should use the feedback to refine the final report

• Final report:– Due Midnight 16/06/2008– Please send the final project file to the tutor and me:

rche0750@usyd.edu.au; x.wang@arch.usyd.edu.au– should strictly follow the formatting requirements.

• Final exam:– June 2, 6:00-7:00 in the lab on the fifth floor– Multiple choice questions and essay questions– Most questions are from lecture notes and classroom discussion