The 10th annual IEEE 3DUI Contest focuses on the development of 3D User Interfaces (3DUIs) using passive haptic feedback in Mixed Reality Environments. Material properties of real objects are enhanced with virtual behaviors while used for interaction in a mixed reality scenario. The contest was open to anyone interested in 3DUIs, from researchers to students, enthusiasts, and professionals. The purpose of the contest is to stimulate innovative and creative solutions to challenging 3DUI problems.

The 9th annual IEEE 3DUI Contest focuses on the development of 3D User Interfaces (3DUIs) for three different tasks in fully immersive Virtual Environments (VEs): (1) Ladder Climbing, (2) First-Person View Flying, and (3) Tower Stacking. The 3DUI Contest is part of the 2018 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces held in Reutlingen, Germany. The contest is open to anyone interested in 3DUIs, from researchers to students, enthusiasts, and professionals. The purpose of the contest is to stimulate innovative and creative solutions to challenging 3DUI problems.

The objective of this research is to compare the effectiveness of different tracking devices underwater. There have been few works in aquatic virtual reality (VR) - i.e., VR systems that can be used in a real underwater environment. Moreover, the works that have been done have noted limitations on tracking accuracy. Our initial test results suggest that inertial measurement units work well underwater for orientation tracking but a different approach is needed for position tracking. Towards this goal, we have waterproofed and evaluated several consumer tracking systems intended for gaming to determine the most effective approaches. First, we informally tested infrared systems and fiducial marker based systems, which demonstrated significant limitations of optical approaches. Next, we quantitatively compared inertial measurement units (IMU) and a magnetic tracking system both above water (as a baseline) and underwater. By comparing the devices rotation data, we have discovered that the magnetic tracking system implemented by the Razer Hydra is more accurate underwater as compared to a phone-based IMU. This suggests that magnetic tracking systems should be further explored for underwater VR applications.

Latency (i.e., time delay) in a virtual environment is known to disrupt user performance, presence and induce simulator sickness. Thus, with emerging use of virtual rehabilitation, the target populations' latency perception thresholds need to be considered to fully understand and possibly control the implications of latency in a Virtual Rehabilitation environment. We present a study that quantifies the latency discrimination thresholds of a yet untested population-a specific subset of mobility impaired participants where participants suffer from Multiple Sclerosis-and compare the results to a control group of healthy participants. The study was modeled after previous latency discrimination research and shows significant differences in latency perception between the two populations with MS participants showing lower sensitivity to latency than healthy participants.

Abstract Virtual environments (VEs) have been shown to be beneficial in physical rehabilitation, increasing motivation and the range of exercises that can be safely performed. However, little is known about how disabilities may impact a user's responses to a VE, which could affect rehabilitation motivation. Thus, the primary objective of this research is to understand how VEs affect users with mobility impairments (MI). Specifically, we investigate the influence of full body avatars that have canes. To begin investigating this, we designed a VE that included a range of multimodal feedback to induce a strong sense of presence and was novel to the participants. Using this VE, we conducted a study with two different populations: eight persons with MI and eight healthy persons as a control. The healthy participants were of similar demographics (e.g., age, weight, height, and previous VE experience) to the participants with MI who walked with a cane (i.e., on the basis of strict selection criteria to maintain homogeneity). This is one of the first studies to investigate how a VE can affect the gait of the users with MI, physiological response, presence, behavior, and the influence of avatars. Results of the study suggest generalizable guidelines for the design of VEs for users with MI. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Previous research on healthy subjects showed that a higher sense of presence can be elicited through full body avatars versus no avatar. However, minimal avatar research has been conducted with persons with mobility impairments. For these users, Virtual Environments (VEs) and avatars are becoming more common as tools for rehabilitation. If we can maximize presence in these VEs, users may be more effectively distracted from the pain and repetitiveness of rehabilitation, thereby increasing users' motivation. To investigate this we replicated the classic virtual pit experiment and included a responsive full body avatar (or lack thereof) as a 3D user interface. We recruited from two different populations: mobility impaired persons and healthy persons as a control. Results give insight into many other differences between healthy and mobility impaired users' experience of presence in VEs.

Latency and avatars in Virtual Environments have been extensively studied over the years. However, there has been minimal research conducted on the effects of latency and avatars for mobility impaired users. To address this, we have conducted a study involving both healthy and mobility impaired participants with the simple task of walking across a simulated room under various latency and avatar conditions. We investigated the impact of latency and avatars on perceived latency and gait parameters. The results suggest that mobility impaired persons react to latency and the presence of an avatar differently than healthy users.

We are investigating if/how Mobility Impaired (MI) persons and healthy persons respond differently to Virtual Environments (VE). Previous research on healthy users has investigated a VE's effects on presence, gait (i.e., walking patterns), and physiological responses (e.g., heart rate). However, almost all of the previous research studies have been conducted only with healthy persons. Thus, it very little is known about how MI persons respond to a VE physiologically, how a VE will affect their gait (i.e., walking patterns), or how their sense of presence may differ from healthy persons. To begin investigating this, we designed a VE that included a range of multimodal feedback to induce a strong sense of presence and was novel to the participants. Using this VE, we conducted a study with two different populations: 8 MI persons and 8 healthy persons. The healthy participants were of similar demographics (e.g., age, weight, height) to the MI participants. The MI population was symptomatically homogeneous (e.g., they all walked with canes) and no participants had cognitive impairment. This is one of the first studies to investigate how a VE can affect MI users' gait, physiological response, and presence.

Using Microsoft Kinect as a whole body motion tracking system and 3D user interface, we developed two exercise-based 3D interaction techniques for a car racing game - a genre of game traditionally unrelated to physical exercise. Interaction (i.e., control of car acceleration) is enabled through the use of two real exercises 1) a half crouching exercise, and 2) a crouching and rising exercise. In two within subjects user studies, with 27 participants in half crouching and another 30 participants in crouching and rising respectively, we compared exercises in-game to the same exercises without the game, focusing on the physiological and motivational impact of mapping exercises as interfaces to games.