As interactive 3D environments are being implemented within our community, examining their efficiency and gathering insights into user's perspectives becomes increasingly important. This study aimed to address two research questions: “Does the level of detail in an interactive 3D landscape model lead to differences in participants' performance on a memory recall test?” and “What are participants' preferences, interests, and subjective understanding of the 3D model?”. The term LOD was used to standardise guidelines for the different levels of detail in the two models compared. A total of 30 participants took part in the experiment, completing tasks in the interactive 3D landscape environment containing a 3D model (LOD1 or LOD2), followed by a memory recall test. The analysis utilised Independent samples t-tests and correlation analysis. Additionally, participants provided feedback on their preferences, interest, and subjective understanding, which were analysed using thematic analysis and Chi-squared tests. The study found no statistically significant difference in memory recall between the groups according to an independent samples t-test. Chi-squared tests revealed that participants in both groups expressed a similar understanding of the models. Thematic analysis revealed that comments on the model were similar regarding interest. Participants in both groups preferred the more detailed model when presented with both images; some were motivated by the fact that it enhanced their understanding. Future research could compare more considerable differences in detail levels (LOD1 vs LOD3 ) and use different approaches to gather insights into participants' memory recall, preferences, or other aspects of interest.

Η διπλωματική αυτή εργασία εκπονήθηκε στο Εργαστήριο της Ερευνητικής Ομάδας Αλληλεπίδρασης Ανθρώπου – Υπολογιστή του Τμήματος Ηλεκτρολόγων Μηχανικών και Τεχνολογίας Υπολογιστών του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών, υπό την επίβλεψη του καθ. Νικολάου Αβούρη. Στόχος της εργασίας είναι η μελέτη και η ανάπτυξη μιας εφαρμογής εικονικού μουσείου, όπου σχεδιάζεται από την αρχή ένα υπάρχον μουσείο, και συγκεκριμένα το «Μουσείο Σολωμού και Επιφανών Ζακυνθίων» που βρίσκεται στη Ζάκυνθο, καθώς και η αλληλεπίδραση του χρήστη με αυτό. Ο χρήστης της εφαρμογής μπορεί να περιηγείται μέσα στο μουσείο και να πληροφορείται σχετικά με τα εκθέματα που περιέχει μέσω της ειδικά ανεπτυγμένης διεπιφάνειας χρήστη. / This diplomatic project was elaborated at the Lab of the Human - Computer Interaction Research Team of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Technology School at the University Of Patras, under the supervision of professor Nikolaos Avouris. The purpose of this project is the development of a virtual museum application, in which, a real museum gets designed from the begining, and particularly the "Museum of Solomos and Important Zakynthos Citizens" which is located in Zakynthos, and the interaction with it. The user can tour the museum and get information about the exhibits it contains, using the specially developed user interface.

This thesis is focused on interaction with object in 3D environment. For detection of user is used the Microsoft Kinect device. Interaction is based on touchless control which is inspirated by reality.  Behaviour of designed solution is researched in experiments and some application is created for demonstration of functionality.

Ces travaux de recherche portent sur l'aide à l'exploration de bases de données.La particularité de l'approche proposée repose sur un principe de co-évolution de l'utilisateur et d'une interface intelligente. Cette dernière devant permettre d'apporter une aide à la compréhension du domaine représenté par les données. Pour cela, une métaphore de musée virtuel vivant a été adoptée. Ce musée évolue de façon incrémentale au fil des interactions de l'utilisateur. Il incarne non seulement les données mais également des informations sémantiques explicitées par un modèle de connaissances spécifique au domaine exploré.A travers l'organisation topologique et l'évolution incrémentale, le musée personnalise en ligne le parcours de l'utilisateur. L'approche est assurée par trois mécanismes principaux : l'évaluation du profil de l'utilisateur modélisé par une pondération dynamique d'informations sémantiques, l'utilisation de ce profil dynamique pour établir une recommandation ainsi que l'incarnation des données dans le musée.L'approche est appliquée au domaine du patrimoine dans le cadre du projet ANTIMOINE, financé par l'Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). La généricité de cette dernière a été démontrée à travers son application à une base de données de publications mais également à travers l'utilisation de types d'interfaces variés (site web, réalité virtuelle).Des expérimentations ont permis de valider l'hypothèse que notre système s'adapte aux évolutions des comportements de l'utilisateur et qu'il est capable, en retour, d'influencer ce dernier. Elles ont également permis de comparer une interface 2D avec une interface 3D en termes de qualité de perception, de guidage, de préférence et d'efficacité. / This thesis focus on a proposition that helps humans during the exploration of database. The particularity of this proposition relies on a co-evolution principle between the user and an intelligent interface. It provides a support to the understanding of the domain represented by the data. A metaphor of living virtual museum is adopted. This museum evolves incrementally according to the user's interactions. It incarnates both the data and the semantic information which are expressed by a knowledge model specific to the domain of the data. Through the topological organization and the incremental evolution, the museum personalizes online the user's exploration. The approach is insured by three main mechanisms: the evaluation of the user profile modelled by a dynamical weighting of the semantic information, the use of this dynamic profile to establish a recommendation as well as the incarnation of the data in the living museum. The approach has been applied to the heritage domain as part of the ANTIMOINE project, funded by the National Research Agency (ANR). The genericity of the latter has been demonstrated through its application to a database of publications but also using various types of interfaces (website, virtual reality).Experiments have validated the hypothesis that our system adapts itself to the user behavior and that it is able, in turn, to influence him.They also showed the comparison between a 2D interface and a 3D interface in terms of quality of perception, guidance, preference and efficiency.

This thesis deals about design and realization software application "Mobile robot studio" for planning path mobile robot in pseudo 3D world. It contains several tools, witch most important are: simulation control, path planning, world editor and commands editor for CAN. Application was made by technology .NET 2.0 and for 3D design was used Microsoft DirectX 9 API. This thesis has been supported by the Czech Ministry of Education in the frame of MSM 0021630529 Research Intention Inteligent Systems in Automation.

Denna studie har försökt se om Lynchs (1960) navigationsprinciper går att applicera i en 3d-miljö för spel för att underlätta navigation. För studien så har en artefakt skapats som var gjord för att testa dessa principer; Paths, Edges, Nodes, Districts och Landmarks. Studien utfördes med hjälp av ett test i formen av ett navigationsmoment i Artefakten. Förväntade resultat var att deltagarna skulle ha klarat testet utan större problem, men det var inte vad som hände. Baserat på deltagarnas aktiva spelvanor så hade de antingen lättare eller svårare att klara navigationsmomentet. Beroende på deltagarnas erfarenheter med navigation i verkligheten och i spel så kunde man se olika former av navigationsstrategier. För fortsatta studier så skulle det vara intressant att göra navigationsmementet igen men med andra typer och upplägg på artefakten för att möjligen se styrkor och svagheter i navigationsprinciper. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>

Le travail de recherche effectué dans le cadre de cette thèse concerne le développement d’un système de perception de la saillance en environnement 3D en tirant l’avantage d’une représentation pseudo-3D. Notre contribution et concept issue de celle-ci part de l'hypothèse que la profondeur de l’objet par rapport au robot est un facteur important dans la détection de la saillance. Sur ce principe, un système de vision saillante de l’environnement 3D a été proposé, conçu et validée sur une plateforme comprenant un robot équipé d’un capteur pseudo-3D. La mise en œuvre du concept précité et sa conception ont été d’abord validés sur le système de vision pseudo-3D KINECT. Puis dans une deuxième étape, le concept et les algorithmes mis aux points ont été étendus à la plateforme précitée. Les principales contributions de la présente thèse peuvent être résumées de la manière suivante : A) Un état de l'art sur les différents capteurs d'acquisition de l’information de la profondeur ainsi que les différentes méthodes de la détection de la saillance 2D et pseudo 3D. B) Etude d’un système basé sur la saillance visuelle pseudo 3D réalisée grâce au développement d’un algorithme robuste permettant la détection d'objets saillants dans l’environnement 3D. C) réalisation d’un système d’estimation de la profondeur en centimètres pour le robot Pepper. D) La mise en œuvre des concepts et des méthodes proposés sur la plateforme précitée. Les études et les validations expérimentales réalisées ont notamment confirmé que les approches proposées permettent d’accroitre l’autonomie des robots dans un environnement 3D réel / The research work, carried out within the framework of this thesis, concerns the development of a system of perception and saliency detection in 3D environment taking advantage from a pseudo-3D representation. Our contribution and the issued concept derive from the hypothesis that the depth of the object with respect to the robot is an important factor in the detection of the saliency. On this basis, a salient vision system of the 3D environment has been proposed, designed and validated on a platform including a robot equipped with a pseudo-3D sensor. The implementation of the aforementioned concept and its design were first validated on the pseudo-3D KINECT vision system. Then, in a second step, the concept and the algorithms have been extended to the aforementioned robotic platform. The main contributions of the present thesis can be summarized as follow: A) A state of the art on the various sensors for acquiring depth information as well as different methods of detecting 2D salience and pseudo 3D. B) Study of pseudo-3D visual saliency system based on benefiting from the development of a robust algorithm allowing the detection of salient objects. C) Implementation of a depth estimation system in centimeters for the Pepper robot. D) Implementation of the concepts and methods proposed on the aforementioned platform. The carried out studies and the experimental validations confirmed that the proposed approaches allow to increase the autonomy of the robots in a real 3D environment

Le domaine de l’informatique 3D est vaste, contenant de nombreuses directions de recherche possible. Une de ces directions est la numérisation d’objetsréels, via des scanners. De nombreux objectifs peuvent requérir cela, de l’affichage et de l’interaction avec le modèle dans un environnement 3D comme un jeu vidéo à l’analyse dudit modèle pour de la rétro-ingénierie, comme l’analyse de l’évolution de l’objet dans le temps pour de la maintenance. Le problème est alors d’être capable de traiter les modèles ainsi acquis. Cette thèse se focalise plus particulièrement sur les modèles de bâtiments acquis à l’aide d’un scanner laser, résultant en un nuage de points 3D. Le processus d’acquisition n’étant pas parfait, le modèle obtenu comporte des défauts comme des trous ou du bruit. Notre première contribution est alors de pouvoir sélectionner une partie de ce nuage de points, dans le but par exemple de cibler des traitements. Le principe est de faire une sélection par étape en créant un volume formé d’une succession de contours de forme libre. Des tests expérimentaux ont montré que cette technique est efficace et préférée par rapport aux deux autres techniques de sélection testées. Notre deuxième contribution est un processus visant à corriger les défauts dus à l’acquisition du modèle. Pour cela, le processus se base sur d’autres sources contenant des informations sur l’objet représenté pour détecter un ensemble de zones contenant des problèmes. Il essaie ensuite autant que possible de prendre automatiquement des décisions pour la correction, mais laisse toujours le choix final à un utilisateur. Les résultats montrent que le modèle obtenu est d’une bien meilleure qualité visuelle. / The computer science field is vast, containing numerous areas of possible research focus. One of those areas is the transposition of real objects in 3D worlds, using scanners. A variety of goals can need such a step, from displaying and interacting with the resulting model in a 3D environment such as a video game to analyzing that model for retro-engineering, such as analyzing the evolution in time of the object for maintenance. The problem then becomes to be capable to treat the models thus acquired. This thesis focuses more particularly on models of building, acquired with a laser scanner, giving a 3D point cloud. The acquisition process being not perfect, the resulting model contains defects such as holes or noise. Our first contribution is then to enable a user to select a part of the cloud, for example to target treatments. The principle is to perform the selection in several steps by creating a volume composed of successive free-formed outlines. Experimental tests showed that this technique is effective and preferred to the two other compared selection techniques. Our second contribution is a process aiming at correcting the defects caused by the acquisition. To that end, the process bases itself on other sources having information on the represented object to detect a set of areas containing problems. It tries then as much as possible to take automatic decisions to correct the problems, but always leaves the final choice to a user. The experiment showed the the resulting model looks much better.

This paper features an analysis of how some games are better designed for virtual reality than others and what we can learn from the games that work better to improve those that do not work as well. The thesis will briefly go through some of the problems in working with virtual reality. Data was collected by letting ten participants play four different games with the Oculus Rift and then answer questions related to their experience with these said games. Did the game cause the feeling of discomfort or create a sense of presence and did the game somehow break that presence? Based on the collected data and the analysis, the results indicate that some types of games work better than others for virtual reality, but that some design decisions can carry over to other games, granted with some effort, but that it is better if a game is created with virtual reality in mind from the start of the development. / Denna uppsats presenterar en analys om hur vissa spel är bättre designade för virtuell verklighet än andra och vad vi kan lära oss från spel som fungerar bättre för att förbättra de spel som inte fungerar lika bra. Uppsatsen kommer också behandla vissa problem som uppkommer när man arbetar med virtuell verklighet. Data samlades in genom att låta tio deltagare spela fyra olika spel med hjälp av Oculus Rift och sedan svara på några frågor relaterade till deras erfarenhet av dessa spel. Skapade spelen en känsla av obehag eller skapades en känsla av närvaro i spelvärlden och bröt spelet någonsin den med närvaron? Baserat på insamlad data och analys, indikerar resultatet på att vissa typer av spel fungerar bättre än andra för upplevelser i virtuella verkligheter, men att vissa designval kan överföras till andra spel, dock genom viss arbetsinsats, men att det är bättre om ett spel skapas med virtuell verklighet i åtanke från början av utvecklingen.

<p>Det har blivit allt mer populärt på senare tid med inredning av hemmet, och det finns idag stora möjligheter med virtuell 3D, vilket gör projektet relevant för tiden vi lever i. Projektet handlar om att skapa en första prototyp av en möblerbar 3D-miljö med tillhörande användarvänligt gränssnitt som ska kunna användas i Mios varuhus. Prototypen bygger på två demofilmer av applikationen där gränssnittet och användarens interaktionsmöjligheter har visualiserats i en vanlig skärm, och 3D-miljön i en 3D-skärm, dessa har sedan synkats med varandra för att ge ett helhetsintryck av applikationen. Gränssnittet skulle vara så pass användarvänligt att Mios kunder själva skulle kunna använda applikationen och med hjälp av speciella 3D-skärmar och renderingstekniker skulle miljön framstå som verklig. Projektet startade med en förstudie, med intervjuer och research. Teorier kring användarvänlighet, virtuell verklighet och framtagning av målgrupp togs fram som grund för arbetet. Teorier kring användarvänlighet tillsammans med ett scenario gjorde att gränssnittet kunde utvecklas utifrån användarvänlig design. Prototypen har presenterats för användare, resultaten tyder på att intresset var stort både bland Mios kunder och anställda på varuhuset i Kalmar. Resultaten från enkäterna bidrog också med information för en framtida utveckling av applikationen. Även användarvänligheten styrktes i enkätsvaren. 3D-miljön som skapades innehöll ett djup och kunde enligt presentationen på användare kunde förklaras som att den upplevdes som verklig.</p> / <p>We are becoming more interested in furnishing in our homes, and there is big opportunities with Virtual 3D, which makes this project relevant for the time we live in. The project is about making a first prototype of a furnish-able 3D environment with integrated user friendly interface to be trailed by Mio for use in their shops. The prototype builds on two demonstration movies of the application where the interface and the users interaction options has been visualized in a standard LCD computer monitor and are synchronized with a 3D environment showing in an auto stereoscopic display. The interface was designed to be user friendly so that Mio´s customer themselves should be able to use the application and with help of special 3D-monitors and rendering techniques the environment should be experienced as in reality. The project started with a feasibility study with interviews and research. Theories taken as the basis for the project were about usability, virtual reality and how to find the right users. Theories around usability together with a scenario made it possible to develop the interface from a user friendly point of view. The prototype has been presented to users, the result indicates that there was a big interest for both the customers of Mio and the employees of Mio in Kalmar. The result from the presentation also contributed to information aiding development of the application in the future. Even the usability was improved by the results of the presentation. The 3D environment that was made contained a depth dimension and according to the user results, it could be described as a real experience.</p>