Batting training practice aims at increasing the batting performance of baseball players. Traditional batting practice methods have been proven effective in increasing the players batting performance in real games. However, the feedback the player gets is limited to: the vibration of the bat, the sound of the impact and the ball trajectory. We propose a Virtual Reality-based (VR) baseball batting system that provides batters with instantaneous bat swing information as feedback. This information includes: exact bat-ball impact location and angle, replay for swing timing and speed. The ability to review this swing information immediately after each swing may help batters to quantitatively adjust their swing to improve batting performance. In order to evaluate its effectiveness, we compared the proposed method against a traditional batting training method, during a short period. Results of our preliminary experiments show that the VR-based group batting performance, after a 10-day practice period, was comparable to the traditional group. Further experiments and analysis are required to assess the efficiency of the proposed method.

We aim to provide an interactive and entertaining environment for users to better enjoy and stay motivated during indoor training. We are now developing a virtual treadmill-based training system that will allow users to experience walking or running around various real scenes. The images are displayed according to the user's speed. We use a set of key frame 360-degree panoramic images on a grid to synthesize, in real-time, an omnidirectional movie for any possible path the user takes. The playback smoothness of the synthesized movie depends on the separation (grid pitch) between key frames. Preliminary experimental results help us determine the largest playback grid pitch without compromising the playback smoothness.

The paper proposes a novel touch-based multi-user interaction environment for browsing images from the Internet. A large touchable screen serves as a shared data space where multiple users simultaneously interact with Internet images by using simple hand movements and gestures. Users can select, bookmark, clean up and refine the search of the incoming images. The system provides a natural and easy-to-use interface to browse and select items from large databases, with uses varying from discussion and brain storming support to edutainment and fun. Early preliminary results show the suitability of our image interactive visualization method for browsing large image collections.

The SenseWeb system is a multi-user interactive information environment. Aimed at supporting the sharing of experiences and collaboration among multiple users allowing them to simultaneously interact with digital multimedia elements by using their bare hands. By sharing a common information space on a large screen, users can cooperatively search, filter, classify and interact with multimedia data in a natural and intuitive way. This paper introduces the system as well as preliminary experiment results to assess its effectiveness as a simultaneous multi-user interaction environment in collaborative image classification tasks. Results confirm our expectations of improvements in task completion time, ease of use and user satisfaction over multi-user but one-at-the-time interaction scenarios.