Virtual reality (VR) is gaining more interest as the technology develops. Today’s Head Mounted Displays enables the users to control the virtual environment (VE) by moving in the physical space. This interaction method usually means that users have their own height in the VE. This is of interest since previous studies show that height affects how we perceive other people. Firstly, a tall person is perceived as being stronger, more dominant and more intelligent than a short person. Secondly, a shorter female is perceived as more socially concerned than a taller female. The aim of this study was to investigate whether these traits connected to height still apply in VR. The result indicates that perception of dominance and strength still apply in VR whereas perception of intelligence and social concern does not. Meaning that a stronger, or more dominant, character can be achieved simply by making that character taller, and vice versa. Consequently, producers of VR content have a clearer task at hand when creating content - they can alter the height of the character when portraying a character as either strong or weak, and either dominant or submissive. / Virtuell verklighet (VR) vinner mer intresse eftersom tekniken utvecklas. Dagens headsets möjliggör för användare att kontrollera den virtuella miljön (VE) genom att röra sig runt i den fysiska miljön. Denna interaktionsmetod betyder oftast att användare har sin egen längd i en VE. Just att de har sin egen längd är intressant eftersom tidigare studier visar att längd påverkar hur vi uppfattar andra människor. För det första uppfattas en lång person som starkare, mer dominerande och mer intelligent än en kort person. För det andra uppfattas en kortare kvinna som mer omhändertagande än en längre kvinna. Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka ifall dessa egenskaper kopplade till längd fortfarande råder i VR. Resultatet indikerar att perception av dominans och styrka fortfarande gäller i VR, medan perception av intelligens och omhändertagande inte gäller. Detta betyder att en starkare, eller mer dominant, karaktär kan uppnås bara genom att göra den karaktären längre, och vice versa. Följaktligen har producenter av VR-innehåll en klarare uppgift när de skapar innehåll - de kan ändra karaktärens höjd när man visar en karaktär som antingen stark eller svag och dominant eller undergiven.

This study sought to explore the existence of a relationship between age and/or military affiliation (active, veteran, or family member) and awareness of local community mental health programs available for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. The study separated age from military affiliation to better distinguish between influences on awareness level. Considerations that remain critical regarding post-traumatic stress disorder were described and used to guide a comprehensive review of the literature to find directions to fulfill the goal of this study. A survey was conducted and 586 active military, veterans, and their family members responded to an instrument that contained 40 items. This study was constrained to three items from the survey; age, military affiliation, self-rated awareness of treatment for PTSD. Multiple analysis techniques found no significant (p < .05) correlation between either age and awareness or military affiliation and awareness. Further analysis found a significant (p = .003) correlation between veterans and awareness, as well as between family members of veterans (p = .017) and awareness. Veterans and their family members indicated a greater awareness of local community mental health programs available for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder than did active troops and/or their family members. The significance of this finding presents new opportunities to study and improve both the marketing and the delivery of mental health treatment for PTSD to the active military population. Multiple opportunities for future research are discussed.

3D Organon VR Anatomy is a virtual reality program that allows individuals to interact with anatomy in a 3D environment. This column provides a brief overview of the product and its potential uses within a medical library.

Safety training is a vital component to the well-being of individuals in all industries. With technology advancing at the current pace, conventional training methods are no longer the most effective way to communicate information. There is a strong need for safety training that incorporates new methods and forms of communication to obtain higher levels of comprehension. Virtual reality systems offer a highly customizable and interactive form of delivering information to users. This research addresses major gaps in the field of safety training using virtual reality systems and provides a design framework for creating a virtual safety-training system. A model for the virtual environment is designed and developed and the process and justification is described. The environment and an applied use case for this model is developed and verified using a sample of trainees that would use the model. This exploratory framework provides a significant contribution to the field of safety education through virtual reality systems and can be expanded with further research.

Uppsatsens syfte är att bidra med kunskap om det komplexa begreppet kreativitet. Utifrån ettfenomenologiskt perspektiv är det upplevelsen av kreativitet i en datorsimulerad virtuell miljö som är ifokus. Studien vilar på ett teoretiskt ramverk i Maurice Merleau-Pontys anda med tankar om attutgångspunkten för all vår kunskap, sinnesintryck och erfarenhet fås genom våra levande kroppar.I studien fick undersökningsgruppen bestående av fyra deltagare till uppgift att utan föreskrifter, på egenhand utan tidspress, skapa någonting i en virtuell miljö med hjälp av den grafiska programvaran Tilt Brush.Studien är kvalitativ och bygger på intervjuer före aktiviteten i VR, observationer under aktiviteten ochintervjuer efter aktiviteten i VR. Det empiriska materialet har analyserats enligt den deskriptivafenomenologiska metoden grundad av Amadeo Giorgio. Metoden har en tydlig förankring i denfenomenologiska filosofin och kännetecknas av att erhålla en sådan exakt beskrivning som möjligt av detundersökta fenomenet.Resultatet visar att de generella kännetecken som tillsammans formar upplevelsen av kreativitet går atturskilja via tre huvudteman: förändring i tid och rum, en förmåga och vitalitet. Utifrån det fenomenologiskaperspektivet i studien är det möjligt att urskilja en kreativ process som tar sig till uttryck enligt två teman:aktiv process eller koncentrerad process. Den aktiva processen utmärker sig hos deltagarna utan erfarenhetav VR och representerar en kreativ upplevelse med mycket kroppsliga rörelser, ett utforskande och ett skedeför att skaffa kunskap om verktyget. Den koncentrerade processen utmärker sig hos deltagarna mederfarenhet av verktyget och representera en kreativ upplevelse med mindre kroppsliga rörelser på en mindreyta. Studiens resultat bekräftar i många avseende mycket av den forskning som redan finns: ett fenomenmed en hög nivå av komplexitet i och med deltagarnas svårighet att definiera begreppet och prata om sinaupplevelser

Wearing a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR-HMD) disconnects users from the real- world context that they are physically in. While one solution is to have everyone in the room wear VR-HMDs, this is not inclusive for all users. For example, children are not recommended to wear VR-HMDs due to eyesight concerns, and individuals with cybersickness, make-up, or thick hair texture may not want to wear them. In this thesis, we investigated the effects of using motion-tracked tablets as a window through which people can see the virtual world and understand how we can offer a more inclusive and social VR experience. Finally, we explore our in-lab user study to evaluate the usability of such a system, and we compare it against watching the VR-HMD user's egocentric view on a computer screen. Our results show that the tablet-based VR system is highly usable. Because of its agency, the participants felt more present and preferred the tablet-based system over the baseline method. / Master of Science / Wearing a VR-HMD (Virtual Reality Head Mounted Display) to enter VR (Virtual reality) usually cuts the user off from the real-world context around them. One possible solution to this problem is to let everyone wear VR-HMDs. But it is not feasible for everyone. Some individuals experience cybersickness or physical constraints such as glasses, thick hair, or makeup. Additionally, children are not allowed to wear VR-HMD as it may affect their eyesight. We propose a solution to this problem by enabling users to use motion-tracked tablets. Motion-tracked tablets refer to tablets such as iPad, Galaxy Tab, etc., that are tracked inside a Virtual Environment (VE) using trackers such as Vive Tracker. The trackers track the relative location of the tablet inside the VE. We believe motion-tracked tablets will give the users a window to the VE. In this thesis, we investigated the effects of using motion-tracked tablets in VR to understand how we can offer a more inclusive and social VR experience. We explored how useful the users found the system, how situationally aware they were about the VE, and how present they felt in the VE. Our results show a preference for motion-tracked tablets over the egocentric view of the VR-HMD user through a computer screen.

We present a virtual simulation of ships and ship-mounted cranes. The simulation is carried out in a Cave Automated Virtual Environment (CAVE). This simulation serves as a platform to study the dynamics of ships and ship-mounted cranes under dynamic sea environments and as a training platform for ship-mounted crane operators. A model of the (Auxiliary Crane Ship) T-ACS 4-6 was built, converted into an OpenGL C++ API, and then ported into the CAVE using DiverseGL (DGL). A six-degrees-of-freedom motion base was used to simulate the actual motion of the ship. The equations of motion of the ship are solved using the Large Amplitude Motion Program (LAMP), while the equations of motion of the crane payload are numerically integrated; the interaction between the payload and the ship is taken into consideration. A nonlinear delayed-position feedback-control system is applied to the crane and the resulting simulation is used to compare the controlled and uncontrolled pendulations of the cargo. Our simulator showed a great deal of realism and was used to simulate different ship-motion and cargo transfer scenarios. This work received support from the Office of Naval Research under Grant No. N00014-99-1-0562. / Master of Science

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No / Advances in computer technology and developments such as the Internet provide a constant momentum to design new techniques and algorithms to support computer graphics. Modelling, animation and rendering remain principal topics in the filed of computer graphics and continue to attract researchers around the world." This volume contains the papers presented at Computer Graphics International 2002, in July, at the University of Bradford, UK. These papers represent original research in computer graphics from around the world

Neuropsychological testing is one method used in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disorders. However, the testing process may be affected by subtle external factors which if not controlled for may have the ability to affect the scores obtained. The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate the effects of some of these external factors, namely caffeine, non-oily fish consumption and time of day. A secondary aim was to evaluate the use of a novel virtual assessment as a possible tool for the early detection of AD. Healthy elderly participants over the age of sixty with no existing cognitive impairment or neurological condition were recruited to take part. For each external factor investigated participants were required to undertake a cognitive assessment. The results demonstrated that subtle external factors present during a typical testing session have the ability to significantly affect the scores obtained. Scores on one part of the virtual test correlated with existing tests used for the early detection of cognitive impairment and were significantly lower in participants classified as mildly impaired. With further modification this test has the potential to be used as an early detection tool. The results have implications for the interpretation of neuropsychological test scores which may be considered when classifying participants, determining treatment interventions, selecting participants for research and making a diagnosis. These findings have important considerations for psychological and cognitive research that investigates human brain function.