Travel methods are the most basic and widespread interaction method with virtual environments. They are the primary and often the only way the user interactively experiences the environment. We present a study composed of three experiments that investigates how virtual collisions methods and feedback impact user perception of the realism of collisions and the virtual environment. A wand-based virtual travel method was used to navigate maze environments in an immersive projective system. The results indicated that the introduction of collision handling significantly improved the user's perception of the realism of the environment and collisions. An effect of feedback on the perceived level of realism of collisions and solidity of the environment was also found. Our results indicate that feedback should be context appropriate, e.g. fitting to a collision with the object; yet, the modality and richness of feedback were only important in that traditional color change feedback did not perform as well as audio or haptic feedback. In combination, the experiments indicated that in immersive virtual environments the stop collision handling method produced a more realistic impression than the slide method that is popular in games. In total, the study suggests that feedback fitting the collision context, coupled with the stop handling method, provides the best perceived realism of collisions and scene.

Games use high quality graphics and pre-crafted visual and auditive effects to create user experiences. Virtual environments offer new navigation and interaction methods, immersive installations, and haptic and olfactoric output. We introduce an extension to VR systems, which makes it possible to use a wide range of multimodal effects from gaming and VR to be activated and modified on a per object basis at runtime. To access, manipulate, and add effects to the objects of a scene intuitively, our extension realizes an abstract, hierarchical scene concept using multimodal objects. Multiple effects can be added to each object and the parameters of each effect can be manipulated online. Fading of effects and bundling of multiple effects for multiple objects are more advanced features of the system.

Much of Virtual Reality (VR) is about creating virtual worlds that are believable. But though the visual and audio experiences we provide today technically approach the limits of human sensory systems, there is still something lacking; something beyond sensory fidelity hinders us from fully buying into the worlds we experience through VR technology.

We present a novel, tangible interface demonstrated by means of the artwork, GranulatSynthese, an installation for the intuitive, tangible creation of ambient, meditative audio-visuals. The interface uses granules distributed over a tabletop surface and combines them with rear-projected visuals and dynamically selected sound samples. The haptic landscape can be explored with the hands, shaped into both hills and open space and composed intuitively. Form, position, and size of cleared table areas control parameters of the computer generated audio-visuals. GranulatSynthese is a meditative application, which invites to either play or step back, watching the visuals and sounds evolve. The installation has proven very accessible. It is inviting and absorbing for a long time for many visitors to the installation.

The design and implementation of interactions in 3D environments remains a challenge. This is especially true for novices. Mechanisms to support the creation of interaction have been developed, but they lack a central metaphor that fits the natural way in which developers conceptualize interaction techniques. In this paper, we introduce a new framework whose design mirrors the essence of interaction throughout the Virtual Reality spectrum, where the user is literally in the center. It also reflects the way in which interactions are actually understood and described, based on the interactor and her actions.

This paper presents art historical research and education as a novel application area for tangible user interfaces. The academic discipline of art history and its subjects are currently undergoing changes that will lead to a rising importance of computers. However, the computer is generally not the art historian's tool of choice. We feel that this is due to existing GUI systems not fully meeting researchers' needs. We therefore propose a design for a tabletop tangible user interface considering art historians' desire "to collect things as tokens" [1] and to remain within traditional techniques. We present a case study of the usage of image cards within iconographic work. Based on our results, we derive implications for the design of the tangible interface that integrates approved traditional paper based techniques with the advantages of digital representation.

Virtual Reality's expanding adoption makes the creation of more interesting dynamic, interactive environments necessary in order to meet the expectations of users accustomed to modern computer games. In this paper, we present initial explorations of using the recently developed Functional Reactive Programming paradigm to support the creation of such environments. The Functional Reactive Programming paradigm supports these actions by providing tools that match both the user's perception of the dynamics of the world and the underlying hybrid nature of such environments. Continuous functions with explicit time dependencies describe the dynamic behaviors of the environment and discrete event mechanisms provide for modifying the active behaviors of the environment. Initial examples show how this paradigm can be used to control dynamic, interactive Virtual Environments.

Abstract This paper presents an experience report on a novel approach for a course on intermediate and advanced computer graphics topics. The approach uses Teachlet Tutorials, a combination of traditional seminar–type teaching with interactive exploration of the content by the audience, plus development of self‐contained tutorials on the topic. In addition to a presentation, an interactive software tool is developed by the students to assist the audience in learning and exploring the topic's details. This process is guided through set tasks. The resulting course material is developed for two different contexts: (a) for classroom presentation and (b) as an interactive, self‐contained, self‐learning tutorial. The overall approach results in a more thorough understanding of the topic both for the student teachers as well as for the class participants. In addition to detailing the Teachlet Tutorial approach, this paper presents our experiences implementing the approach in our Advanced Computer Graphics course and presents the resultant projects. Most of the final Teachlet Tutorials were surprisingly good and we had excellent feedback from the students on the approach and course.

This paper focuses at the usage of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) for achieving pseudo-haptic feedback. By stimulating the motor nerves, muscular contractions can be triggered that can be matched to a haptic event. Reflecting an initial user test, we will explain how this process can be realized, by investigating the physiological processes involved. Relating the triggered feedback to general haptics, its potential in future interfaces will be identified and laid out in a development roadmap.

No abstract available.

Exploring unknown models or scenes is a highly interactive and dynamic process. Systems for automatic presentation of models or scenes either require cinematographic rules, direct human interaction, framesets, or pre‐calculation of paths to a known goal. In this paper we present a system which can deal with rapidly changing user interest in objects of a scene or model as well as with dynamic models and changes of the camera position introduced interactively by the user or through cuts. We describe CubicalPath, a new potential field‐based camera control system that helps with the exploration of virtual environments.

Exploring unknown models or scenes is a highly interactive and dynamic process. Systems for automatic presentation of models or scenes either require cinematographic rules, direct human interaction, framesets or precalculation of paths to a known goal. We are looking for a system which can deal with rapidly changing user interest in objects of a scene or model as well as with dynamic models and changes of the camera position introduced interactively by the user or through cuts. In this paper we describe CubicalPath, a new potential field-based camera control system that helps with the exploration of virtual environments.