Detta arbete undersökte hur Virtual Reality(VR) kan ha en påverkan på hur husvisningar genomförs. Undersökningen försökte ta reda på om VR kan användas för att ersätta eller komplettera fysiska husvisningar. Arbetet gick även igenom vad som är viktigt för utvecklare att tänka på för att förbättra användarnas upplevelser. Undersökningen genomfördes med flera datainsamlingsmetoder som enkäter, intervjuer och observationer av en VR-prototyp. VR-prototypensom var gjord i Unity lät testpersonerna genomföra en digital husvisning. Resultatet visade att det finns potential för den här typen av applikationer, på grund av att det kan minska vissa stressmoment för användarna. Användarna påpekade att det skulle fungera mer som en komplement till fysiska visningar på grund av att det inte ger riktigt hela bilden av huset som användarna vill ha. Med sådana applikationer finns en avsaknad av viktiga aspekter såsom bild av området och lukt.

Due to the increasing demand for technical competence in professional jobs, computer-related subjects, including programming, have gained attention in education. However, it is reported that many beginners encounter difficulties when learning fundamental programming principles, leading to decreased engagement and motivation to continue. To address this issue and a way to make the learning process more appealing to the new generation of learners is Game-Based Learning (GBL). GBL incorporates principles from games to enhance the enjoyment and engagement of learning. Moreover, the rise of Virtual Reality can potentially push GBL to a new height. The research question is, do the users perceive a higher engagement level when learning fundamental programming concepts using a virtual reality game than a desktop game? To achieve the goal, ten experiments were conducted, and mixed data were obtained through questionnaires and observations. The quantitative data was analyzed with descriptive statistics, and the significance was verified using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Thematic analysis was applied to the qualitative data, and seven themes were produced. The findings suggest that the VR application provided users with a higher level of enjoyment and engagement. The main factors contributing to this result are the unrivaled level of immersiveness, naturalistic interactions, and the body's freedom. Although the desktop application offered better accessibility, this advantage was outweighed by the benefits delivered by VR. This study contributes to the existing knowledge on this topic and will also be valuable to lecturers interested in integrating immersive technologies into their educational practice.

Problem statement - While reading earlier conducted research on how the Metaverse can be adopted into organizations' operations, a knowledge gap was identified. It was observed that despite the hype around the Metaverse, there is no empirical research on how organizations can adopt the Metaverse into their operations and how this can influence sustainable development.  Purpose - This study aims to explore what values the Metaverse can bring to organizations in the context of sustainable operations management. The goal is to develop a framework that can guide organizations to develop their use of the Metaverse within operations management in a sustainable way. Method - In order to answer the purpose of this study, qualitative research with inductive reasoning was conducted. Empirical data was collected by interviewing eight people in five different companies. The data was later coded through the grounded theory coding.  Result - From the empirical data eight categories were identified. The interviewees expressed their views of the Metaverse today and in the future. It was stated that the Metaverse can be applied to organizational processes, the development of products and/or services,  marketing and sales, human encounters, and competence development. Limitations - This study includes eight participants from five different companies in the technology sector which decreases the generalizability. Two of the included participants, namely, the experts, can be viewed as biased as they have an interest in spreading a positive picture of the Metaverse. Furthermore, one of the experts provided this research with five participants who also can be seen as biased. Implications - This study has both theoretical and practical implications. By exploring the potential of the Metaverse within operations management and how it consequently impacts sustainable development, the researchers of this study filled the knowledge gap in the traditional literature of operations management and expanded it, adding new aspects, which is the theoretical implication. As regards practical implications, this study highlights findings that can guide companies on the way to reduce their negative environmental impact, contribute to social sustainability and enhance economic growth. Conclusion - The Metaverse can be seen as a universal tool that can be applied almost anywhere in organizations' operations. Organizations can use it for experimentation, testing and construction in a virtual environment. Scenario simulations can help forecast breakdown, measure energy consumption, and track emissions. Organizations can establish showrooms, apartment shows, test groups, meetings, and social hangouts. The Metaverse can change the way people interact and acquire knowledge. Therefore, it can change the way how we think of and perform operations management.

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3D immersive visualization systems, or CAVEs™, have found wide adoption for use in geosciences, planetary science, medical research, and computer science. However, much of the potential for such systems in practical civil and environmental engineering settings has been severely limited due to 1) extreme costs in both hardware and software; 2) immobility due to calibration and darkroom requirements; and 3) extensive and expensive manpower requirements for both operation and maintenance. This thesis presents the development and testing of a new mobile low-cost immersive stereo visualization system -- the "VuePod" -- that attempts to address these challenges through the use of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies, open source software, consumer grade passive 3-D television monitors, an active tracking system, and a modular construction approach. The VuePod capitalizes on recent functional advancements and cost decreases in both hardware and software and is demonstrated herein as a viable alternative to projector-based walk-in CAVEs and their limitations. Additionally, I have selected twelve representative 3D immersive systems and performed a side-by-side analysis of each in terms of cost, viewing capabilities, computing and user experience. The purpose of performing this analysis is to classify the variety of systems available and simplify the system procurement and configuration processes. The availability of this comparative system information should facilitate the increased utilization of immersive 3D interface technologies in science and engineering.

Architecture is a field inherently connected to art. The artist cancreate pieces that purposefully challenge our emotional states. Often,the architect is merely responsible for supplying the canvas. Theseemotional challenges, often conveyed by art, can frequently be left assecondary in architecture.In big cities society is constantly changing at a high pace.According to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (2020), thepopulation stresses more and more, which leads to mental illnessthrough exhaustion. That, in turn, leads to long-term sick-leaves andunemployment. We have little time for self reflection and introspectionand during the remaining hours of our days the media steer us indirections of their own. Our minds are crowded with ideas and needsthat are not inherently ours that further increase toxic societal norms.The relation between our bodies, our minds and our directenvironments has a great impact on our mental well-being. Architectureand spatial design have the ability to inspire and influence humanbehaviour. So, the spaces in which we spend most of our time couldhelp us become mentally stronger and reduce stress levels.In order to explore how to create these kinds of builtenvironments, Virtual Reality (VR) can be used as a tool to test spatialexperiences that would emulate real life situations and trigger realemotional reactions. After surveying the field of VR research andperforming VR experiments, a virtual space was designed. This VRexperience was to act as a summary of the exploratory stage of theproject, acting as a precursor to the architecture set in the real world.The reality-based project is located on site in centralStockholm, in connection to areas where stress levels are recordedto be among the highest. In this building, visitors could pause for ashort time, being surrounded by an architecture that triggers positiveand beneficial emotional responses, ultimately contributing to a moresocially sustainable city.

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A immersive VR-art gallery that investigates and proposes new ways of displaying digital art.

Locomotion, the ability to walk freely in virtual environments, is a problem with no standardized solution. Walk-in-Place is one strand of solutions in which the user’s physical movement creates forward movement in the virtual environment. This technique is particularly useful for navigation in smartphone-based virtual reality without location detection. However, current mobile implementations use gaze-directed steering which limits the user’s ability to simultaneously scan the environment, which can reduce maneuverability. Additionally, step detection is triggered by head movement which shakes the head-mounted display and can therefore create discomfort and motion sickness. Detached Walk-in-place (dWIP) uses an external gyroscope attached to the body, or held in the hand, to track the user’s body rotation. This detaches the walking direction from gaze direction and removes step detection from the head-mounted-display. In this paper, I present a study of two different dWIP solutions (Torso- and Hand-directed). Both solutions are tested and compared with an existing mobile walk-in-place solution. Performance, user preference and simulator sickness were measured as the participants had to navigate a curved track using each method. The result shows that both dWIP methods required less steps compared with the current WIP, but the torso-directed dWIP is slower compared to the other two. There was no significant difference in user preference or simulator sickness. Overall, dWIP was well received and shows great potential as a mobile VR locomotion method. / Möjligheten att röra sig fritt i virtuella miljöer är ett problem utan en standardiserad lösning. Walk-in-place är en gren av lösningar som innebär att användarens fysiska rörelse skapar framåtrörelse i den virtuella miljön. Den här typen av lösning är speciellt användbar i smartphone-baserade virtuella miljöer utan platsregistrering. Nuvarande walk-in-place implementationer för smartphones använder huvudriktningen för styrning, vilket begränsar användarens förmåga att röra sig och samtidigt överblicka omgivningen, något som kan begränsa manövreringsförmågan. Dessutom triggas stegdetektering av huvudrörelser vilket kan skaka om headsetet och bidra till obehag och illamående. Frikopplad Walk-in-Place (dWIP) använder ett externt gyroskop som sätts fast på kroppen, eller hålls i handen, för att registrera användarens kroppsrotation. Detta frikopplar gångriktningen från huvudriktningen och tar bort stegdetekteringen från headsetet. I den här artikeln presenterar jag en studie av två olika dWIP-lösningar (Kropp- och Handriktad). Båda lösningarna är testade och jämförda med en existerade Walk-in-Place lösning för smartphones. Prestation, preferens och illamående mättes. Studiens deltagare navigerade igenom en böjd bana där de använde alla lösningarna varsin gång. Resultatet visar att deltagarna tog sig igenom banorna på färre steg med båda dWIP-lösningarna jämfört med den nuvarande WIP-lösningen, men att det tog längre tid med kroppsriktad dWIP. Det var ingen signifikant skillnad mellan deltagarnas preferenser eller upplevda illamående. Sammanfattningsvis blev dWIP väl mottaget av deltagarna och visade på en stor potential som navigationsmetod för VR till smartphones.

As we are heading into immersive virtual reality environments for different purposes - entertainment being the most prominent lately - we should consider how we design interactive information visualizations for VR. Is it wise to hold onto the same elements of interaction with which we are familiar from contemporary web-based interfaces? The study explores this question along with others, to explore ways to conduct familiar filtering operations known from web environments, in VR. An interactive information visualization application in VR was created to evaluate two web-inspired interaction methods used for filtering data. Thirteen users participated in the tests, in which each participant worked through eight predetermined tasks as well as one open-ended task. Qualitative feedback was gathered both through think-alouds during the tasks and in semi-structured interviews when the test had been concluded. Quantitative data was gathered in the application, containing logs of usage statistics. Results show that using web-inspired interaction methods to carry out filtering operations in VR helped the participants to understand the functionality of the interactions. By implementing haptic and visual feedback, natural interactions can be imitated which according to the results of the study generally is perceived as helpful while making the interactions feel more natural. Designing the interaction methods to function like previously known interactions (such as ones found in web interfaces) helped the participants to understand the functionality of the filters. / I och med framfarten av VR och dess olika användningsområden – där underhållning gått i bräschen på senare tid – borde vi fundera på hur vi designar interaktiva informationsvisualiseringar för VR. Är det klokt att hålla fast vid samma interaktionselement som vi känner igen från webbaserade gränssnitt? Studien utforskar denna fråga tillsammans med andra, för att utforska sätt att genomföra bekanta filtreringsoperationer som känns igen från webbmiljöer, i VR.   En interaktiv informationsvisualiseringsapplikation i VR skapades för att utvärdera två webbinspirerade interaktionsmetoder som användes för att filtrera data. Tretton användare deltog i studien, där varje deltagare tog sig igenom åtta förbestämda uppgifter samt en öppen uppgift. Kvalitativ återkoppling samlades in både via think-alouds under uppgifterna samt i semistrukturerade intervjuer när testet hade avslutats. Kvantitativa data samlades in i applikationen och innehöll användningsstatistik.   Resultaten visar att användandet av webbinspirerade interaktionsmetoder för att genomföra filtreringsoperationer i VR hjälpte deltagarna att förstå interaktionens funktionalitet. Genom att implementera haptisk och visuell feedback kan naturliga interaktioner efterliknas, vilket enligt studiens resultat uppfattas som hjälpsamt samtidigt som interaktionerna kändes mer naturliga. Att utforma interaktionsmetoderna för att efterlikna de som återfinns i webbgränssnitt hjälpte deltagarna att förstå filtrens funktionalitet.