Based on input and feedback from firefighters, we built a futuristic pump panel simulator using consumer VR hardware, basic electronics components, and simple physical props. The simulator mixes the physical and the virtual together in order to demonstrate how passive haptics can be used to enhance the user experience. This prototype will be used to explore how VR might be used with future first-responder training.

This paper develops and compares two motion planning algorithms for a tethered UAV with and without the possibility of the tether contacting the confined and cluttered environment. Tethered aerial vehicles have been studied due to their advantages such as power duration, stability, and safety. However, the disadvantages brought in by the extra tether have not been well investigated by the robotic locomotion community, especially when the tethered agent is locomoting in a non-free space occupied with obstacles. In this work, we propose two motion planning frameworks that (1) reduce the reachable configuration space by taking into account the tether and (2) deliberately plan (and relax) the contact point(s) of the tether with the environment and enable an equivalent reachable configuration space as the non-tethered counterpart would have. Both methods are tested on a physical robot, Fotokite Pro. With our approaches, tethered aerial vehicles could find their applications in confined and cluttered environments with obstacles as opposed to ideal free space, while still maintaining the advantages from the usage of a tether. The motion planning strategies are particularly suitable for marsupial heterogeneous robotic teams, such as visual servoing/assisting for another mobile, tele-operated primary robot.

Virtual reality often uses motion tracking to incorporate physical hand movements into interaction techniques for selection and manipulation of virtual objects. To increase realism and allow direct hand interaction, real-world physical objects can be aligned with virtual objects to provide tactile feedback and physical grasping. However, unless a physical space is custom configured to match a specific virtual reality experience, the ability to perfectly match the physical and virtual objects is limited. Our research addresses this challenge by studying methods that allow one physical object to be mapped to multiple virtual objects that can exist at different virtual locations in an egocentric reference frame. We study two such techniques: one that introduces a static translational offset between the virtual and physical hand before a reaching action, and one that dynamically interpolates the position of the virtual hand during a reaching motion. We conducted two experiments to assess how the two methods affect reaching effectiveness, comfort, and ability to adapt to the remapping techniques when reaching for objects with different types of mismatches between physical and virtual locations. We also present a case study to demonstrate how the hand remapping techniques could be used in an immersive game application to support realistic hand interaction while optimizing usability. Overall, the translational technique performed better than the interpolated reach technique and was more robust for situations with larger mismatches between virtual and physical objects.

Limited research has been performed attempting to handle multiuser storytelling environments in virtual reality. As such, a number of questions about handling story progression and maintaining user presence in a multi-user virtual environment have yet to be answered. We created a multi-user virtual reality story experience in which we intend to study a set of guided camera techniques and a set of gaze distractor techniques to determine how best to attract disparate users to the same story. Additionally, we describe our preliminary work and plans to study the effectiveness of these techniques, their effect on user presence, and generally how multiple users feel their actions affect the outcome of a story.

Traditionally in virtual reality systems, head tracking is used in head-mounted displays (HMDs) to allow users to control viewing using 360-degree head and body rotations. Our research explores interaction considerations that enable semi-natural methods of view control that will work for seated use of virtual reality with HMDs when physically turning all the way around is not ideal, such as when sitting on a couch or at a desk. We investigate the use of amplified head rotations so physically turning in a comfortable range can allow viewing of a 360-degree virtual range. Additionally, to avoid situations where the user's neck is turned in an uncomfortable position for an extended period, we also use redirection during virtual movement to gradually realign the user's head position back to the neutral, straight-ahead position. We ran a controlled experiment to evaluate guided head rotation and amplified head rotation without realignment during movement, and we compared both to traditional one-to-one head-tracked viewing as a baseline for reference. After a navigation task, overall errors on spatial orientation tasks were relatively low with all techniques, but orientation effects, sickness, and preferences varied depending on participants' 3D gaming habits. Using the guided rotation technique, participants who played 3D games performed better, reported higher preference scores, and demonstrated significantly lower sickness results compared to non-gamers.