The management of online learning environments so that they are effective and efficient presents a significant challenge for institutions and lecturers due to the complexity of requirements in the learning and teaching domain. The use of 3D Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) for education introduces a novel set of management challenges. MUVEs were designed to cater for entertainment and commercial needs and as such do not intrinsically support managed learning. When MUVEs are used for educational purposes, forming 3D Multi User Learning Environments (MULEs), user support for learning management becomes an important factor. This thesis highlights the importance of managed learning in MULEs. It proposes a coordinated approach which accommodates the existing education institutional infrastructure. The research has focused on two very widely used and closely compatible MUVEs, Second Life (SL) and OpenSim. The thesis presents system and user studies that have been carried out on these selected MUVEs. The findings reveal the challenges that academics and students can experience if they do not have sufficient knowhow to manage learning activities in SL/OpenSim. User guidance and training tools were then developed for supporting learning management strategies in the context of SL/OpenSim and demonstrated in exemplar use-case scenarios. The user support models and tools which were developed have been extensively evaluated for their usability and educational value using diverse participant groups. The results validate the efficacy of these contributions, defending the research thesis. These contributions can be used in future research on managing MUVE supported education.

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: 3D virtual environments can be used as therapy tools in patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs); however, the development of such tools is time-consuming. A 3D virtual environment development platform for such tools has been developed specifically for the South African context, because of the language and culture sensitivity of these therapy tools. The 3D virtual environment development platform has a Lua scripting interface for specifying logic in the virtual environments. Lua is a textual programming language, and presents a challenge to ASDs therapists’ ability to create therapy tools without engaging an expert programmer. The aim of this research was to investigate the design and implementation of a visual programming environment to support non-expert programmers in scripting within the 3D virtual environment development platform. Various visual program representation techniques, reported in the literature, were examined to determine their appropriateness for adoption in our design. A visual programming language based on the “building-block” approach was considered the most suitable. The research resulted in the development of a visual script editor (VSE), based on an open source framework called the OpenBlocks library. The VSE successfully alleviated the syntax burden that textual programming languages place on non-expert programmers. The fitness of purpose of our VSE was exemplified in a sample 3D virtual environment that was scripted using the VSE. Despite the success, we argue that the applicability of the “building-block” approach is limited to domain-specific programming languages due to the absence of visual expressions for defining user-defined types, and for specifying hierarchy. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming

Aus Einleitung und Motivation "Die gegenwärtigen Entwicklungen von Head-Mounted Displays (HMD, hier synonym auch als Brille bezeichnet) für Virtual Reality (VR) und Augmented Reality (AR) schaffen ein nie da gewesenes Potential dieser Technologien als Werkzeuge in der Produktentwicklung. Wenngleich VR- und ARAnwendungen keineswegs neu in der Industrie sind, bringt der Fortschritt der Verbraucher-HMDs völlig neue Möglichkeiten. Immersive VR-Systeme bedeuten künftig keine hunderttausend Euro Anschaffung mehr – AR-Brillen dienen zukünftig nicht nur der Erweiterung der Realität mit zweidimensionalen Informationen. Cave Automatic Virtual Environments (CAVE), 360-Grad-Projektoren und interaktive Planungstische sind in der Fabrikplanung teilweise etabliert (Runde et al. 2015). Im Unterschied zu diesen Techniken können HMDs jedoch eine deutlich höhere Immersion ermöglichen, was auch für die Interaktion mit der virtuellen Umgebung von Vorteil sein kann. Das Gefühl der Immersion ist wichtig, um in bestimmten Entwicklungsphasen entsprechende Kriterien besser beurteilen zu können. Primär ist der VR-Einsatz für Bewertungsmerkmale sinnvoll, welche nur qualitativ und nicht quantitativ bewertbar sind (Pawellek 2014). Des Weiteren spielt auch die Eingabetechnologie eine essenzielle Rolle. Um mit virtuellen Elementen interagieren zu können, sollte das Eingabegerät echtzeitfähig und intuitiv sein. ..."

[pt] A interação em ambientes virtuais de engenharia se caracteriza pelo alto grau de precisão necessário para a realização de tarefas típicas desse ipo de ambiente. Para isso, normalmente são utilizados dispositivos de interação específícos que possuem 4 graus de liberdade ou mais. As atuais aplicações envolvendo interação 3D utilizam dispositivos de interação para a modelagem de objetos ou para a implementação de técnicas de navegação, seleção e manipulação de objetos em um ambiente virtual. Um problema relacionado é a necessidade de controlar tarefas naturalmente não-imersivas, como a entrada de símbolos (e.g., texto, fotos).Outro problema é a grande curva de aprendizado necessária para manusear tais dispositivos não convencionais. A adição de sensores popularização os smartphones e tablets possibilitaram a utilização desses dispositivos em ambientes virtuais de engenharia. Esses dispostitivos se diferenciam, além da popularidade e presença de sensores, pela possibilidade de inclusão de informações adicionais e a realização de tarefas naturalmente não-imersivas. Neste trabalho é apresentada uma ferramenta de interação 3D para tablets, que permite agregar todas as principais técnicas de interação 3D como navegação, seleção, manipulação, controle de sistema e entrada simbólica. Para avaliar a ferramenta proposta foi utilizada aplicação SimUEOP-Ambsim, um simulador de treinamento em plataformas de óleo e guias que tem a complexidade necessária e permite o uso de todas as técnicas implementadas. / [en] Interaction in engineering virtual environments is characterized by the necessity of the high precision level needed for the execution of specic tasks for this kind of environment. Generally this kind of task uses specicinteraction devices with 4 or more degrees of freedom (DOF). Current applications involving 3D interaction use interaction devices for object modelling or for the implementation of navigation, selection and manipulation tecniques in a virtual environment. A related problem is the necessity of controlling tasks that are naturally non-immersive, such as symbolic input (e.g., text, photos). Another problem is the large learning curve to handle such non-conventional devices. The addition of sensors and the popularization of smartphones and tablets, allowed the use of such devices in virtual engineering environments. These devices, besides their popularity and sensors, dier by the possibility of including additional information and performing naturally non-immersive tasks. This work presents a 3D interaction tablet-based tool, which allows the aggregation of all major 3D interaction tasks, such as navigation, selection, manipulation, system control and symbolic input. To evaluate the proposed tool we used the SimUEP-Ambsim application, a training simulator for oil and gas platforms that has the complexity needed and allows the use of all techniques implemented.

[pt] Há muitas aplicações de realidade virtual que requerem navegação em ambientes 3D. Em geral, esta facilidade é oferecida permitindo que o usuário controle todos os seis graus de liberdade da câmera virtual. No entanto, dessa forma é difícil, mesmo para usuários experientes, chegar a áreas de interesse com movimentos suaves e livres de colisão. Torna-se necessário prover uma navegação assistida, onde o usuário guia a câmera mais facilmente, sem restringir sua exploração do ambiente. Além disso, é interessante prover uma navegação totalmente automática, onde o usuário seleciona um alvo e o sistema calcula um caminho suave e livre de colisões através do ambiente. Este trabalho propõe uma solução específica para navegação em modelos usados para simulação numérica de reservatórios naturais de petróleo, baseada em grafos de guia probabilísticos. Utilizados comumente em aplicações de robótica, grafos de guia probabilísticos visam capturar, através de uma amostragem aleatória, a conectividade das áreas livres da cena, sendo construídos em pré-processamento e consultados em tempo de execução. Este trabalho propõe um algoritmo de construção de grafo de guia específico para reservatórios e duas técnicas para utilizar o grafo obtido como base para prover navegação automática e navegação assistida. / [en] There are many virtual reality applications that require navigation on 3D environments. Usually, this feature is offered by allowing the user to control all the six degrees of freedom of the virtual camera. However, it is difficult in this way, even for experienced users, to reach areas of interest with smooth and collision-free paths. It becomes necessary to provide an assisted navigation, in which the user guides the camera more easily, without restricting the environment exploration. Moreover, it is interesting to provide a fully automatic navigation, in which the user selects a target and the system computes a smooth, collision-free path throughout the environment. This work proposes a specific solution for navigation on models used in numerical simulations of black oil reservoirs, based on probabilistic roadmaps. Commonly used in robotics applications, probabilistic roadmaps tend to capture, by random sampling, the conectivity of the free space of the scene, being constructed in a pre-processing stage and queried in execution time. This work proposes a roadmap construction algorithm specific to reservoirs and two techniques to use the obtained roadmap as the basis to provide assisted and automatic navigation.

[pt] O tema desta pesquisa é o estudo de usabilidade da interação tridimensional através de ambientes virtuais na internet. Seu objeto é a experiência vivenciada através do Second Life, um ambiente virtual colaborativo que permite explorar mundos digitais e interagir com outras pessoas em tempo real. Consideramos como hipótese que o Second Life apresenta problemas de usabilidade que prejudicam a interação e o uso por usuários novatos em ambientes virtuais tridimensionais. Desta forma, buscamos identificar tais problemas e formulamos recomendações para o design de interfaces envolvendo a interação 3D. Inicialmente construímos um referencial teórico combinando capítulos de tecnologia tridimensional, percepção visual e conceitos de usabilidade e interação humano-computador. Em seguida, aplicamos a técnica de teste de usabilidade seguida de um questionário pós-teste envolvendo os conceitos de presença e satisfação subjetiva dos usuários. Os resultados obtidos confirmaram a hipótese formulada, permitindo afirmar que a usabilidade do Second Life, apesar de apresentar alta satisfação subjetiva é prejudicada pela existência de problemas que impedem uma maior e melhor utilização por usuários novatos em ambientes virtuais tridimensionais. / [en] This research deals with the usability study of three- dimensional interaction through virtual environments on the internet. The object of this study is the interaction experienced using Second Life, a virtual collaborative environment on the internet that allows users to explore digital worlds and meet other people in real time. It was considered as hypothesis that Second Life has usability problems that compromises the interaction experience for computer users new to threedimensional virtual environments. Therefore this research aimed at discovering such problems and recommending solutions for better design of this type of interfaces. Initially we built a theoretical reference combining three-dimensional technologies, visual perception and important usability concepts. After that, we applied the usability test technique followed by a post-test questionnaire dealing with the factors of presence and subjective satisfaction. The results obtained confirmed the hypothesis by showing that the interaction experience in Second Life, besides a good subjective satisfaction, is compromised by usability problems that affect computer users new to virtual three- dimensional environments.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:10:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 29 / Nenhuma / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo refletir sobre os sentidos construídos pelos alunos e professores ao utilizarem ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem em modalidades de Educação On-Line. Uma prática educacional de ensino e aprendizagem de língua estrangeira através do ambiente TelEduc sustentou a construção dos registros pelos participantes da pesquisa, os quais são alunos dos cursos de Ensino Médio e Técnico da Fundação Escola Técnica Liberato Salzano Vieira da Cunha, de Novo Hamburgo. As teorias Sociocultural de Lev S. Vygotsky e Dialógica de Mikhail Bakhtin foram o principal referencial teórico durante o desenvolvimento do estudo. Os instrumentos para o registro da experiência foram documentos escritos e entrevistas semi-estruturadas. Além disso, as produções dos alunos no ambiente deram suporte às reflexões. Nos registros da experiência, os sujeitos constroem sentidos sobre os ambientes virtuais que ora se alinham, ora se contradizem. As conclusões, porém, apontam para a construção do significado relativo aos / This research has the objective of reflecting about the senses which are constructed by students and teachers when using virtual learning environments in modalities of On-Line Education. An educational practice of teaching and learning a foreign language through TelEduc gave support to the construction of the registers by the participants of the research, who are students of the technical and high school courses of Fundação Escola Técnica Liberato Salzano Vieira da Cunha, from Novo Hamburgo. Lev S. Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory and Mikhail Bakhtin’s Dialogic Theory were the main theoretical references during the study. The instruments for the register of the experience were written documents and semi-structured interviews. Besides, students’ productions in the environment gave support to the reflections. In the registers of the experience, the subjects construct senses about the virtual environment which sometimes align and other times contradict themselves. The conclusions, however, lead to the constructi

Ces travaux traitent de la scénarisation d’environnements virtuels, définie comme la spécification des déroulements possibles ou souhaitables d’une simulation, et la mise en place de mécanismes permettant de contrôler son déroulement effectif de manière dynamique. Nous visons pour cette scénarisation un ensemble d’objectifs, souvent considérés comme contradictoires : la liberté et la capacité d’action de l’utilisateur, l’ampleur, le caractère dynamique et l’efficacité du contrôle exercé sur le scénario, la cohérence des comportements présentés et l’adaptabilité du système, nécessaire pour la variabilité des scénarios. Nous proposons SELDON, un modèle basé sur le contrôle centralisé et indirect d’une simulation émergente à partir de modèles du contenu scénaristique. L’environnement est peuplé de personnages virtuels autonomes et l’utilisateur y est libre de ses actions. La scénarisation est réalisée en deux étapes : des objectifs dynamiques sont déterminés à partir de l’activité de l’utilisateur, puis est généré en fonction de ces objectifs et exécuté au travers d’ajustements sur la simulation.Le moteur DIRECTOR permet de générer et de réaliser ce scénario. DIRECTOR utilise les modèles qui sous-tendent la simulation pour prédire son évolution, et guide cette évolution au travers d’un ensemble d’ajustements indirects, qui influencent les réactions des systèmes techniques et les décision des personnages. Il utilise un moteur de planification pour générer des scénarios composés d’étapes de prédiction, dont il suit la réalisation dans la simulation, et d’ajustements, qu’il déclenche.Les objectifs scénaristiques pris en compte sont à la fois dynamiques, au travers de situations prescrites et proscrites et de contraintes sur les propriétés globales du scénario, et statiques, sous la forme d’espaces de scénario. Le contenu scénaristique et les objectifs scénaristiques statiques sont représentés à l’aide de l’ensemble de langages que nous avons proposé : DOMAIN-DL, ACTIVITY-DL et CAUSALITY-DL. Ces contributions permettent d’allier la réactivité et la variabilité permises par des simulations émergentes et la pertinence des scénarios offerte par les systèmes basés sur de la planification. / This work addresses the orchestration of virtual environments, defined as the specification ofpossible or wanted unfoldings of events in a simulation and the implementation of control mechanisms over the actual unfolding. We aim at a set of objectives often considered contradictory : user freedom/agency, range, dynamicity and efficiency of control over the scenario, behavioural coherence, and system adaptability, which is essential for scenario variability. We propose SELDON, a model based on centralised and indirect control of an emergent simulation. Scenario content is represented by domain and activity models in the DOMAIN-DL and ACTIVITY-DL lanquages. The virtual environement is populated by autonomous characters, and the user’s choices of actions are unconstrained. Orchestration is carried out in two steps: first, a set of dynamic objectives is determined from the user’s profile and activity, then a scenario is generated from these objectives and executed through adjustements on the simulation. The DIRECTOR engine performs scenario generation and execution. DIRECTOR uses the simulation’s models to predict its evolution and guide it through a set of indirect adjustements that influence technical systems’ reactions and characters’ decisions. It uses planning to generate scenarios made up of prediction steps that DIRECTOR monitors in the simulation and adjustements that it triggers in the virtual environment. Scenario objectives can be defined dynamically through prescribed/proscribed situations and constraints on global scenario properties or statically as a space of scenarios of interest represented in the CAUSALITY-DL language.

Afin de créer des productions toujours plus réalistes, les industries du jeu vidéo et du cinéma cherchent à générer des environnements de plus en plus larges et complexes. Cependant, la modélisation manuelle des objets 3D dans de tels décors se révèle très coûteuse. A l’inverse, les méthodes de génération procédurale permettent de créer facilement une grande variété d’objets, tels que les plantes et les bâtiments. La modélisation par règles de grammaire offre un outil de haut niveau pour décrire ces objets, mais utiliser correctement ces règles s’avère très souvent compliqué. De plus, aucune solution de modélisation basée grammaire ne supporte l’édition et la visualisation d’environnements massifs en temps interactif. Dans un tel scénario, les artistes doivent modifier les objets en dehors de la scène avant de voir le résultat intégré.Dans ces travaux de recherche, nous nous intéressons à la génération procédurale et au rendu d’environnements à grande échelle. Nous voulons aussi faciliter la tâche des artistes avec des outils intuitifs de contrôle de grammaires. Tout d’abord nous proposons un système permettant la génération procédurale en parallèle sur le GPU en temps interactif. Pour cela, nous adoptons une approche d’expansion indépendante par segment, permettant une amplification des données en parallèle. Nous étendons ce système pour générer des modèles basés sur une structure interne, tels que les toits. Nous présentons aussi une solution utilisant des contextes externes pour contrôler facilement les grammaires par le biais de surface ou de texture. Pour finir nous intégrons un système de niveaux de détails et des techniques d’optimisation permettant la génération, l’édition et la visualisation interactives d’environnements à grande échelle. Grâce à notre système il est possible de générer et d’afficher interactivement des scènes comprenant des milliers de bâtiments et d’arbres, représentant environ 2 téraoctets de données. / With the increasing computing and storage capabilities of recent hardware, movie and video games industries desire huger realistic environments. However, modeling such sceneries by hand turns out to be highly time consuming and costly. On the other hand, procedural modeling provides methods to easily generate high diversity of elements such as vegetation and architecture. While grammar rules bring a high-level powerful modeling tool, using these rules is often a tedious task, necessitating frustrating trial and error process. Moreover, as no solution proposes real-time generation and rendering for massive environments, artists have to work on separate parts before integrating the whole and see the results.In this research, we aim to provide interactive generation and rendering of very large sceneries, while offering artist-friendly methods for controlling grammars behavior. We first introduce a GPU-based pipeline providing parallel procedural generation at render time. To this end we propose a segment-based expansion method working on independent elements, thus allowing for parallel amplification. We then extend this pipeline to permit the construction of models relying on internal contexts, such as roofs. We also present external contexts to control grammars with surface and texture data. Finally, we integrate a LOD system with optimization techniques within our pipeline providing interactive generation, edition and visualization of massive environments. We demonstrate the efficiency of our pipeline with a scene comprising hundred thousand trees and buildings each, representing 2 terabytes of data.

[pt] Rendering Baseado em Imagens (IBR - Image-Based Rendering) é um a tendência forte em visualização devido à alta qualidade da imagem. Um dos problemas mais complexos é a composição de objetos (3D ou não) na imagem do panorama. O uso de IBR em plataformas restritas, como os celulares, encontra inúmeras dificuldades e não conta com muitos trabalhos na literatura. Este trabalho analisa as possibilidades de implementação de IBR com objetos ativos em celulares. Um protótipo é proposto e resultados são comentados. / [en] Image Based Rendering (IBR) is a strong tendence in visualization due to the high quality of the images. One of the most complex problems is the 2D/3D object composition in a panorama. The use of IBR in limited platforms, like cell phones, faces a number of problems and the literature is scarse. This work analizes the possibility of implementing IBR with active objects in cell phones. A prototype is presented and results are analyzed.