A new wave of VR head mounted displays is being developed and released to the commercial market including examples such as the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Playstation VR. Bundled together with these head mounted displays are a new generation of hand motion controllers which allows the users to reach out and grasp in the virtual environment. Earlier research has explored a range of possible interaction techniques for immersive VR interaction, mainly focusing on the quantitative and objective performance of each technique. Yet even with this research picking the right technique for a given scenario remains a challenging task. This study tries to complement earlier research by instead investigating the qualitative and more subjective aspects of usability, along with making use of the upcoming commercial VR hand controllers. The purpose was to provide guidelines to help future immersive VR interaction designers and researchers. Two interaction techniques (classic Go-Go and ray casting with a reel) were chosen to represent the two most commonly used interaction metaphors for selection and manipulation, i.e. grabbing and pointing. Eleven users were then recruited to try the two interaction techniques inside a shopping scene initially part of a commercial VR game. Each user had to complete five tasks for each technique while “thinking aloud”, followed by an interview after the test. The sessions were recorded and analysed based on five usability factors. The results indicated a strong preferences for the Go-Go interaction technique, with arguments based on how natural its interaction was. These results confirmed several conclusions drawn in earlier research about interaction in immersive VR, including the strength of natural interaction in scenarios which has the capacity to reach a high grade of naturalism, as well as the importance of showing the user when the interaction technique differs from realistic behaviour. Last but not least the results also pointed to the importance of further study on immersive VR interaction techniques over long time use and when combined with user interfaces. / En ny våg av VR-hjälmar håller på att utvecklas för den kommersiella marknaden med exempel såsom HTC Vive, Oculus Rift och Playstation VR. Dessa VR-hjälmar kommer tillsammans med en ny generation av rörelsekänsliga handkontroller som tillåter användarna i den virtuella miljön att nå ut och greppa tag. Tidigare forskning har utforskat en mängd möjliga interaktionstekniker för immersiv VR interaktion, med fokus på de kvantitativa och objektiva faktorerna för varje teknik. Trots denna forskning så är valet av interaktionsteknik för ett givet VR scenario fortfarande en svår uppgift. Denna studie försöker komplementera tidigare forskning genom att granska de mer subjektiva och kvalitativa aspekterna av användbarhet, samtidigt som den nya generationen av handkontroller för VR används. Syftet med studien var att framställa rekommendationer för att underlätta för framtida interaktionsdesigners och forskare inom VR. Två interaktionstekniker (klassisk Go-Go samt strålkastning med fiskerulle) valdes ut för att representera de två mest använda interaktionsmetaforerna för val och manipulering, det vill säga att greppa och att peka. Elva användare rekryterades för att pröva de två interaktionsteknikerna, inom ramen för ett shopping scenario som ursprungligen ingick i ett kommersiellt VR spel. Varje användare ombads att utföra fem uppgifter med varje teknik samtidigt som de “tänkte högt”, vilket följdes av en avslutande intervju. Sessionerna spelades in och analyserades utifrån fem användbarhetsfaktorer. Resultaten visade att användarna föredrog Go-Go, på grund av att dess interaktion ansågs vara mer naturlig. Resultaten bekräftade även ett flertal slutsatser från tidigare forskning kring interaktionstekniker för VR, så som styrkan i naturlig interaktion i situationer som har kapacitet att nå en hög grad av realism och vikten av att visa användarna när interaktionstekniken bryter mot ett realistiskt beteende. Sist men inte minst visade resultaten även på vikten av framtida studier, dels gällande användning av interaktionstekniker över en längre tid och dels gällande hur dessa interaktionstekniker ska kombineras med användargränssnitt.

Scania needs to reconfigure their factories quickly to meet the future demands of the market. The process of reconfiguring factories starts with the factory layouts. Factory design is a complicated detail-oriented process, and if major physical changes on the factory floor and installations fail, it affects the entire production flow. It is an expensive and time consuming process to rectify these errors. Hence, it is extremely important that the installations are both quick and accurate. So, Scania wants to investigate how Immersive Virtual Reality could be used in the Factory layout design process. This thesis addresses how to utilize VR with existing technologies at Scania, by mapping the capabilities of VR to the needs of Scania. A function of interest to Scania is the possibility to import data, such as Point Clouds, CAD Objects and Factory Layouts, to create a coordinated VR platform. After understanding the VR technology, it was proved possible to import and visualize all of these data, after exporting it to a format that was readable by the VR system. Once the VR platform was setup, based on the imported models, the next step was to evaluate the aspects of working with VR, as compared to working with Scania’s Factory CAD system –“LayCAD”. It was assessed that the Immersive VR system offers better visualization, evaluation and realization of layout changes, compared to the LayCAD system. But the use of VR requires additional skills, time and cost to setup the VR platform. Based on the degree of maturity of the VR technology and the current state of Scania, it was concluded that VR cannot yet serve as a standalone solution for layouts within Scania. For an efficient factory development process, it is more appropriate to work with both systems in combination, where Immersive VR is used as an additional visualization or verification tool for presenting and evaluating conceptual layouts. / Scania behöver omkonfigurera sina fabriker snabbt för att möta marknadens framtida krav. Processen med omkonfigurering av fabriker börjar med fabrikslayouterna. Fabriksdesign är en komplicerad detaljorienterad process, och om stora fysiska förändringar på fabrikens golv och installationer misslyckas påverkar det hela produktionsflödet. Det är en dyr och tidskrävande process att rätta till dessa fel. Därför är det extremt viktigt att installationerna är både snabba och korrekta. Så, Scania vill undersöka hur Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) kan användas i fabrikslayoutdesignprocessen. Denna avhandling beskriver hur man kan använda VR med befintlig teknik i Scania genom att kartlägga VR: s förmåga att möta Scanias behov. En funktion av intresse för Scania är möjligheten att importera data, såsom Point Clouds, CAD Objects och Factory Layouts, för att skapa en samordnad VR-plattform. Efter att ha förstått VR-tekniken visade det sig vara möjligt att importera och visualisera alla dessa data efter att ha exporterat dem till ett format som var läsbart av VR-systemet. När VR-plattformen var inställd, baserad på de importerade modellerna, var nästa steg att utvärdera aspekterna av att arbeta med VR, jämfört med att arbeta med Scanias Factory CAD-system - "LayCAD". Det bedömdes att systemet för Immersive VR ger bättre visualisering, utvärdering och realisering av layoutändringar jämfört med LayCAD-systemet. Men användningen av VR kräver ytterligare färdigheter, tid och kostnad för att installera VR-plattformen. Baserat på mognadsgraden av VR-tekniken och Scanias nuvarande IT-användning, drogs slutsatsen att VR ännu inte kan fungera som en fristående lösning för layouter inom Scania. För en effektiv fabriksutvecklingsprocess är det mer lämpligt att arbeta med båda systemen i kombination, där Immersive VR används som ett extra visualiserings- eller verifieringsverktyg för att presentera och utvärdera konceptuella layouter.

It is estimated that there are currently fifty million people living with dementia worldwide. An accurate and early diagnosis of dementia is important in order to initiate appropriate treatment programs as soon as possible. Common methods of neuropsychological assessment can be sensitive to external factors which may compromise accuracy. The aim of this thesis was to investigate techniques that have the potential for the detection of dementia that avoid some of the external influences. The thesis looked at measurements of (i) postural stability (ii) facial analysis and (iii) fully-immersive virtual reality in cognitively-healthy individuals. These techniques were chosen as postural stability and facial analysis change in dementia and whilst virtual reality has previously been used in dementia research, fully-immersive virtual reality measures have not been established. To see if the measurements were associated with cognitive function, participants completed a series of cognitive tests. Results indicate that all techniques explored shared a relationship with memory performance, with lower anteroposterior postural sway (F(1,22) = 17.76, p < 0.01), number of activities participated in that involve a posture element (F(2, 39) = 3.77, p < .05; Wilk's Λ = 0.84, partial η2 = 0.16), the greater the frequency of negative facial expressions (F(2, 18) = 4.49, p < .05; Wilk's Λ = 0.67, partial η2 = 0.33.), and low blink rate (t(11.02) = 2.62 p < .05) all showing better scores on memory tests. Moreover, better scores on the fullyimmersive virtual reality task predicted better scores on with short-term memory (F(1,22) = 20.20 p < 0.01), LTM (F(1,22) = 09.10 p < .01), associative learning (F(1,22) = 08.75 p < .01), and a dual–task test (F(1,22) = 04.64 p < .05). The novel findings that elements such as postural stability, participation in sports, facial expressions of emotion, blink rates, and spatial memory as assessed in fully-immersive virtual reality highlight that non-invasive techniques can provide measurements that correspond to cognitive ability. This may hold implications for dementia diagnoses. Future research should assess whether these relationships can also be found in an older adult population. If this relationship is found in older adults, it could justify further research into how these techniques could be applied in a clinical context.

Detta arbete undersöker hur User Experience Design-utvärderingsmetoden heuristisk utvärdering kunde anpassas till utvärderingen av TV-spel inom kontexten av immersive Virtual Reality. Rapporten börjar med att redogöra för TV-spel, Virtual Reality och User Experience som fält, med särskild fokus på utvärderingsmetoder. En genomgång av tidigare, relevant litteratur och utförandet av heuristiska utvärderingar ledde till skapandet av en lista med heuristiker utformade för immersive Virtual Reality-spel. En manual med riktlinjer för utförandet av utvärderingar inom en Virtual Reality-kontext skapades också. Både heuristikerna och manualen validerades och reviderades utefter resultaten av de heuristiska utvärderingar som utfördes under arbetets gång. Resultaten visade på att heuristisk utvärdering går att använda inom en VR-spelskontext, men att det kräver vissa modifikationer. Detta har implikationer för användandet av andra utvärderingsmetoder i samma kontext.

Immunology Virtual Reality (VR) project is an immersive educational virtual reality experience that intends to provide an informal learning experience of specific immunology concepts to college freshmen in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech (VT). The project is an interdisciplinary endeavor between my collaboration between people from different domain areas at VT: Creative Technologies, Education, Biological Sciences, and Computer Sciences. This thesis elaborates on the whole design process of how I created a working prototype of the project demo and shares insights from my design experience. / Master of Fine Arts / Immunology Virtual Reality is an immersive educational virtual reality experience in which a user takes on the role of an immune cell and migrates to fight off pathogen invasions at an infection site in the human body. It explores levels of interactivity and storytelling in educational VR and their impact on learning.

A integração on-line de dados reais com ambientes de realidade virtual imersivos, criando sistemas híbridos, é um campo de pesquisa multidisciplinar, ainda pouco explorado. O alto nível de envolvimento do usuário proporcionado pela realidade virtual imersiva e a confiabilidade e precisão de informações provenientes da aquisição de dados reais, de maneira on-line, podem auxiliar o processo de tomada de decisão, em diversas áreas de aplicação. Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia de integração on-line de dados reais de manufatura com ambientes de realidade virtual imersivos, mais especificamente, com sistemas CAVE. A metodologia foi desenvolvida voltada para a área de manufatura virtual, com foco em máquinas-ferramenta. Foram criados e interligados dois métodos de aquisição de dados on-line, um deles específico para máquinas-ferramenta, através do protocolo MTConnect e outro, genérico, via imagens de câmeras. O trabalho foi desenvolvido, em geral, com base em bibliotecas e softwares livres, bem como com dispositivos de baixo custo. Por fim, avaliou-se a metodologia através de estudos de caso, baseados em dados reais on-line, provenientes de máquinas-ferramenta reais e de simuladores de dados de máquinas reais. Os resultados deste trabalho podem auxiliar o desenvolvimento de ferramentas que aumentem do nível de confiabilidade das tomadas de decisões baseadas em simulações virtuais da área de manufatura. E, devido à sua implementação modular, ao formato hierárquico e unificado de sua estrutura e à padronização de seus tipos de dados, comunicações e formas de utilização, pode ser adequada a quaisquer áreas de aplicação que utilizem integração de dados reais on-line com ambientes virtuais imersivos. / The on-line integration of real manufacturing data with immersive virtual reality environments, forming hybrid systems, is an underexplored multidisciplinary research field. The high level of users\' involvement provided by immersive virtual reality and the reliability and accuracy of information acquired on-line from real data, can assist the decision making process, in many research areas. This research presents a way to on-line integrate manufacturing real data with immersive virtual reality environments, more specifically, with CAVEs. This work was developed toward the area of virtual manufacturing, with focus on machine tools. Two data acquisition methods were created and placed to work together, one specific for machine tools, through the MTConnect protocol and the other, generic, through camera images acquisition. This work was based on free libraries and software, as well as low cost devices. Finally, this work was evaluated through case studies, based on on-line real data, from real machine tools and real machine data simulators. The results achieved with this research can contribute to the development of new tools to increase the reliability level of manufacturing virtual simulations. Moreover, due to its modular implementation, the hierarquical and unified structure format and the standardization of its communication methods and data types, it can be arranged to almost any research areas which use integration of real on-line data with immersive virtual environments.

A integração on-line de dados reais com ambientes de realidade virtual imersivos, criando sistemas híbridos, é um campo de pesquisa multidisciplinar, ainda pouco explorado. O alto nível de envolvimento do usuário proporcionado pela realidade virtual imersiva e a confiabilidade e precisão de informações provenientes da aquisição de dados reais, de maneira on-line, podem auxiliar o processo de tomada de decisão, em diversas áreas de aplicação. Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia de integração on-line de dados reais de manufatura com ambientes de realidade virtual imersivos, mais especificamente, com sistemas CAVE. A metodologia foi desenvolvida voltada para a área de manufatura virtual, com foco em máquinas-ferramenta. Foram criados e interligados dois métodos de aquisição de dados on-line, um deles específico para máquinas-ferramenta, através do protocolo MTConnect e outro, genérico, via imagens de câmeras. O trabalho foi desenvolvido, em geral, com base em bibliotecas e softwares livres, bem como com dispositivos de baixo custo. Por fim, avaliou-se a metodologia através de estudos de caso, baseados em dados reais on-line, provenientes de máquinas-ferramenta reais e de simuladores de dados de máquinas reais. Os resultados deste trabalho podem auxiliar o desenvolvimento de ferramentas que aumentem do nível de confiabilidade das tomadas de decisões baseadas em simulações virtuais da área de manufatura. E, devido à sua implementação modular, ao formato hierárquico e unificado de sua estrutura e à padronização de seus tipos de dados, comunicações e formas de utilização, pode ser adequada a quaisquer áreas de aplicação que utilizem integração de dados reais on-line com ambientes virtuais imersivos. / The on-line integration of real manufacturing data with immersive virtual reality environments, forming hybrid systems, is an underexplored multidisciplinary research field. The high level of users\' involvement provided by immersive virtual reality and the reliability and accuracy of information acquired on-line from real data, can assist the decision making process, in many research areas. This research presents a way to on-line integrate manufacturing real data with immersive virtual reality environments, more specifically, with CAVEs. This work was developed toward the area of virtual manufacturing, with focus on machine tools. Two data acquisition methods were created and placed to work together, one specific for machine tools, through the MTConnect protocol and the other, generic, through camera images acquisition. This work was based on free libraries and software, as well as low cost devices. Finally, this work was evaluated through case studies, based on on-line real data, from real machine tools and real machine data simulators. The results achieved with this research can contribute to the development of new tools to increase the reliability level of manufacturing virtual simulations. Moreover, due to its modular implementation, the hierarquical and unified structure format and the standardization of its communication methods and data types, it can be arranged to almost any research areas which use integration of real on-line data with immersive virtual environments.

New advances in computer programming and more powerful technology have opened up new opportunities for learning though immersive virtual reality simulations. This research highlighted the importance of the role of a lecturer in fostering learning in a technology rich learning environment. Undergraduate business studies students worked collectively to try resolve a problem depicted through an immersive simulation involving a burning factory. The simulation provided a rich personal experience that enabled students with lecturer support to generate effective strategies to address the problem.

In this thesis we explore the concepts and components which can be used as individual building blocks for producing immersive virtual reality (VR) content from a single RGB-D sensor. We identify the properties of immersive VR videos and propose a system composed of a foreground/background separator, a dynamic scene re-constructor and a shape completer. We initially explore the foreground/background separator component in the context of video summarization. More specifically, we examined how to extract trajectories of moving objects from video sequences captured with a static camera. We then present a new approach for video summarization via minimization of the spatial-temporal projections of the extracted object trajectories. New evaluation criterion are also presented for video summarization. These concepts of foreground/background separation can then be applied towards VR scene creation by extracting relative objects of interest. We present an approach for the dynamic scene re-constructor component using a single moving RGB-D sensor. By tracking the foreground objects and removing them from the input RGB-D frames we can feed the background only data into existing RGB-D SLAM systems. The result is a static 3D background model where the foreground frames are then super-imposed to produce a coherent scene with dynamic moving foreground objects. We also present a specific method for extracting moving foreground objects from a moving RGB-D camera along with an evaluation dataset with benchmarks. Lastly, the shape completer component takes in a single view depth map of an object as input and "fills in" the occluded portions to produce a complete 3D shape. We present an approach that utilizes a new data minimal representation, the additive depth map, which allows traditional 2D convolutional neural networks to accomplish the task. The additive depth map represents the amount of depth required to transform the input into the "back depth map" which would exist if there was a sensor exactly opposite of the input. We train and benchmark our approach using existing synthetic datasets and also show that it can perform shape completion on real world data without fine-tuning. Our experiments show that our data minimal representation can achieve comparable results to existing state-of-the-art 3D networks while also being able to produce higher resolution outputs.

(in English) This diploma thesis is examining the ways of using immersive virtual reality with senior citizens aged 65 plus with health problems. Those chosen individuals who live in a retirement home were examined and questioned after trying out a virtual reality headset with a specific travel experience using the Google Earth VR app. The main focus was to study their emotional state and its shifts. The author used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research to finalise the analysis. The theoretical part offers an insight on the use of immersive virtual reality in the lives of senior citizens such as how they spend free time in the Retirement homes. The analytical part of this dissertation shows a summary of existing studies and commercial projects using virtual reality with the aim to facilitate seniors. The qualitative research has helped to a better understanding of the Czech market. It also helped executing a scientific investigation centred on a particular group of seniors. Data was gathered via half structured interviews, observation and standardised questionnaires PANAS and Flow Short Scale.