This thesis addresses the subject of converging real and virtual environments to a combined entity that can facilitate physiologically complying interfaces for the purpose of training. Based on the mobility and physiological demands of dismounted soldiers, the base assumption is that greater immersion means better learning and potentially higher training transfer. As the user can interface with the system in a natural way, more focus and energy can be used for training rather than for control itself. Identified requirements on a simulator relating to physical and psychological user aspects are support for unobtrusive and wireless use, high field of view, high performance tracking, use of authentic tools, ability to see other trainees, unrestricted movement and physical feedback. Using only commercially available systems would be prohibitively expensive whilst not providing a solution that would be fully optimized for the target group for this simulator. For this reason, most of the systems that compose the simulator are custom made to facilitate physiological human aspects as well as to bring down costs. With the use of chroma keying, a cylindrical simulator room and parallax corrected high field of view video see-though head mounted displays, the real and virtual reality are mixed. This facilitates use of real tool as well as layering and manipulation of real and virtual objects. Furthermore, a novel omnidirectional floor and thereto interface scheme is developed to allow limitless physical walking to be used for virtual translation. A physically confined real space is thereby transformed into an infinite converged environment. The omnidirectional floor regulation algorithm can also provide physical feedback through adjustment of the velocity in order to synchronize virtual obstacles with the surrounding simulator walls. As an alternative simulator target use, an omnidirectional robotic platform has been developed that can match the user movements. This can be utilized to increase situation awareness in telepresence applications.

While there currently exists a great deal of research in the literature demonstrating various engineering applications for virtual reality (VR) and the benefits of these applications, VR adoption has been slow in part because of the high cost and resources required to setup and maintain the hardware for these applications. However, in the last 5 years, a new generation of VR hardware has emerged with cost and resource requirements which are a small fraction of previous hardware. This work begins with a survey of this newly available hardware summarizing recent advances for providing virtual input to all of the five human senses. The literature review then proceeds to highlight previous research into improving various aspects of the Engineering Design Process by using VR applications. The literature review concludes that given the significantly improved cost to benefit ratio of this new hardware, a tipping point has been reached where companies will see benefits from providing their engineering workforce with general access to VR hardware. From the conclusions drawn in the literature review, this work proceeds to explore and answer two main questions related to connecting and collaborating via this new VR hardware. The first question seeks to understand the trade-offs between cybersickness and disorientation from different styles of moving users in a collaborative VR environment (CVE). Since a CVE can be much larger than the physical world it is sometimes necessary to move the virtual participant which can cause cybersickness and disorientation. Understanding this trade-off is one key to creating a usable CVE. It is found that many users are willing to experience some mild cybersickness to significantly reduce the amount of disorientation experienced in a CVE. However, a second group of users are not willing to make this trade and hence require the ability to customize the CVE for their preferred trade-off between cybersickness and disorientation. The second question seeks to understand how a CVE with support for natural gestures can improve communication about complex 3D data over video conferencing which is the current standard for remote collaboration. It is found that such a CVE implemented with the latest low-cost consumer-grade VR hardware can improve communication speed up to 45% while also improving the accuracy of the communication. In addition, it was found that gestures in the CVE were much more effective and natural than mouse gestures in Skype, 93% of participants preferred the CVE over current video conferencing software, and 86% of participants stated they would like to have access to VR tools in their workplace.

While there currently exists a great deal of research in the literature demonstrating various engineering applications for virtual reality (VR) and the benefits of these applications, VR adoption has been slow in part because of the high cost and resources required to setup and maintain the hardware for these applications. However, in the last 5 years, a new generation of VR hardware has emerged with cost and resource requirements which are a small fraction of previous hardware. This work begins with a survey of this newly available hardware summarizing recent advances for providing virtual input to all of the five human senses. The literature review then proceeds to highlight previous research into improving various aspects of the Engineering Design Process by using VR applications. The literature review concludes that given the significantly improved cost to benefit ratio of this new hardware, a tipping point has been reached where companies will see benefits from providing their engineering workforce with general access to VR hardware. From the conclusions drawn in the literature review, this work proceeds to explore and answer two main questions related to connecting and collaborating via this new VR hardware. The first question seeks to understand the trade-offs between cybersickness and disorientation from different styles of moving users in a collaborative VR environment (CVE). Since a CVE can be much larger than the physical world it is sometimes necessary to move the virtual participant which can cause cybersickness and disorientation. Understanding this trade-off is one key to creating a usable CVE. It is found that many users are willing to experience some mild cybersickness to significantly reduce the amount of disorientation experienced in a CVE. However, a second group of users are not willing to make this trade and hence require the ability to customize the CVE for their preferred trade-off between cybersickness and disorientation. The second question seeks to understand how a CVE with support for natural gestures can improve communication about complex 3D data over video conferencing which is the current standard for remote collaboration. It is found that such a CVE implemented with the latest low-cost consumer-grade VR hardware can improve communication speed up to 45% while also improving the accuracy of the communication. In addition, it was found that gestures in the CVE were much more effective and natural than mouse gestures in Skype, 93% of participants preferred the CVE over current video conferencing software, and 86% of participants stated they would like to have access to VR tools in their workplace.

This thesis examined how virtual reality could be used in interior design. The thesis was limited to virtual reality experienced using a head mounted display. The Method was to integrate virtual reality into an existing interior design software called CET Designer. After investigating the available commercial virtual reality hardware and software Oculus SDK and OpenVR was chosen. Unity 3D was used as a prototyping tool for experimenting with different interaction and navigation methods. An user study with 14 participants was performed. It compared four different navigation methods. First person shooter style controls using a gamepad was proven to be the best one. It can also be concluded that having a bad navigation style could decreased the user experience in virtual reality and cause motion sickness.

Conventional stereoscopic displays present a pair of stereoscopic images on a single and fixed image plane decoupled with the vergence and accommodation responses of the viewer. In consequence, these displays lack the capability of correctly rendering focus cues (i.e. accommodation and retinal blur) and may induce the discrepancy between accommodation and convergence. A number of visual artifacts associated with incorrect focus cues in stereoscopic displays have been reported, limiting the applicability of these displays for demanding applications and daily usage.In this dissertation, methods and apparatus for generating addressable focus cues in conventional stereoscopic displays are proposed. Focus cues can be addressed throughout a volumetric space, either through dynamically varying the focal distance of a display enabled by an active optical element or by multiplexing a stack of 2-D image planes. Optimal depth-weighted fusing functions are developed to fuse a number of discrete image planes into a seamless volumetric space with continuous and near-correct focus cues similar to the real world counterparts.The optical design, driving methodology, and prototype implementation of the addressable focus displays are presented and discussed. Experimental results demonstrate continuously addressable focus cues from infinity to as close as the near eye distance. Experiments to further evaluate the depth perception in the display prototype are conducted. Preliminary results suggest that the perceived distance and accommodative response of the viewer match with the addressable accommodation cues rendered by the display, approximating the real-world viewing condition.

The purpose with this project was to create a virtual reality game were the users should be able to carry out a thinning. The main goals are to use real forests terrains as terrain models in the game, the GameObjects and the teleportation system in the application should be able to handle changing terrains and the application should not cause virtual reality sickness. The application has been developed with the help of the game engine Unity and plugins from Unitys own asset store. User tests and measurements will be carried out in order to evaluate if the game causes virtual reality sickness or not. The results shows that it is possible to use real forests terrains and that the solution is suited for this application. The downside is that in order to use real life terrains several steps has to be taken and that the terrain object has to be designed manually. It also shows that the GameObjects and the Teleportation system has been implemented in a way so they can handle changing terrains. Furthermore it shows that some of the functionalities of the application could be improved, especially the scoring system. The users tests and the measurements showed that the application isn't causing virtual reality sickness but it also showed that the users feels like there are things missing in the application

The recent increase of affordable virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays has led to many new video games and applications being developed for virtual reality environments. The improvements to VR technology has introduced many new possibilities, but has also introduced new problems to solve in order to make VR software as comfortable and as effective as possible. In this report, different methods of displaying text and receiving text input in VR environments are investigated and measured. An interactive user study was conducted to evaluate and compare the performance and user opinion of three different text display methods and four separate virtual keyboard solutions. Results revealed that the distance between text and user, with the same relative text size, significantly affected the ease of reading the text, and that designing a good virtual keyboard for VR requires a good balance of multiple factors. An example of such factors is the balance between precise control and the amount of physical exertion required. Additionally, the results suggest that the amount of previous experience with virtual reality equipment, and typing skill with regular physical keyboards, can meaningfully impact which solution is most appropriate. / Den senaste tidens ökning av prisvärda virtual reality (VR) glasögon har lett till en ökning av spel och applikationer som utvecklas för virtual reality miljöer. Förbättringarna av VR tekniken har introducerat många nya möjligheter, men även nya problem att lösa för att skapa VR mjukvara som är så bekväm och effektiv som möjligt. I den här rapporten undersöks och mäts olika metoder för att visa samt ta emot text i VR miljöer. Detta undersöktes genom utförandet av en interaktiv användarstudie som utvärderade och jämförde effektiviteten och användaråsikter kring tre olika metoder för att visa text samt fyra olika virtuella tangentbordslösningar. Resultatet visade att avståndet mellan användaren och texten, med samma relativa textstorlek, avsevärt påverkade lättheten att läsa texten, samt att designen av ett bra virtuellt tangentbord för VR kräver en bra balans mellan flera faktorer. Ett exempel på sådana faktorer är balansen mellan noggrann kontroll och den fysiska ansträngning som krävs. Resultatet tyder även på att mängden av tidigare erfarenhet med virtual reality utrustning samt skicklighet att skriva med vanliga fysiska tangentbord betydligt kan påverka vilka lösningar som är mest passande för situationen.

In recent years, technological developments have led to the emergence of 360°. Google Street Map has provided panoramic imagery for a number of years, where users can immerse themselves and pan around in scenarios and follow streets of their liking, familiarizing and navigating themselves with the location. However, this service supports neither video nor moving imagery. This paper explores the use of 360° panoramic videos as a navigation aid on two different platforms as well as consider more subjective perspectives from potential users. The study is conducted through a set of interviews and a focus group where the findings reveal a number of design challenges concerning the development of a navigational system based on 360° panoramic videos. Based on these findings, design challenges are presented and later summarized as three design recommendations; 1) Design for navigation in a panoramic scenery, 2) Support overview and traditional navigation, 3) Support custom tailored features and content. The studies also suggest that the use of a head-mounted display (HMD) increase the feeling of presence which is beneficial for navigational purposes however, the users in this study preferred the mobile device based on practicality.

This thesis evaluates how a head mounted display (HMD) can be used to increase usability compared to existing computer programs that are used during maintenance work on vehicles. Problems identified during a case study in a vehicle workshop are first described. As an attempt to solve some of the identified problems a prototype application using a HMD was developed. The prototype application aids the user during troubleshooting of systems on the vehicle by leading the mechanic with textual information and augmented reality (AR). Assessment of the prototype application was done by comparing it to the existing computer program and measuring error rate and time to completion for a predefined task. Usability was also measured using the System Usability Scale. The assessment showed that HMDs can provide higher usability in terms of efficiency and satisfaction. Furthermore, the thesis describes and discusses other possibilities and limitations that usage of HMDs and AR can lead to that were identified both from theory and during implementation.

In the recent years, virtual reality has been used as an effective tool for a wide range of areas such as training, rehabilitation, education and games. The affordability of the new generation headsets helped this medium to become more widespread. However, in order for virtual reality to become mainstream, more content that is specifically designed for this medium is needed. Since virtual reality is a different technology than the computer systems, different design principles may be required for these content for better user experience. One of the crucial components of virtual reality applications is locomotion, since the viewpoint of the user is very important in immersing the users into virtual reality and locomotion is used for moving the viewpoint of user in virtual environments. Locomotion in virtual reality is expected to have a direct effect on user experience in terms of many elements such as effort, enjoyment, frustration, motion sickness and presence. Up to date, many locomotion techniques for virtual reality have been studied in the literature. However, many of these techniques were evaluated in large tracked areas. Although professional motion tracking systems can track large areas, today’s new generation affordable commercial virtual reality systems can only track room scale environments. This dissertation aims at evaluating different locomotion techniques in room scale tracked areas for neurotypical individuals and individuals with ASD. Several previous studies concurred that virtual reality is an effective medium for the training and rehabilitation of individuals with ASD. However, no previous study evaluated locomotion in virtual reality for this specific population. Thus, this dissertation aims at finding out the suitable virtual reality locomotion techniques for individuals with ASD. With these motivations, in this dissertation, locomotion techniques for room scale virtual reality were evaluated under three experiments: virtual reality for vocational rehabilitation system, evaluation of eight virtual reality locomotion techniques, and point & teleport direction specification experiment. In the first experiment of virtual reality for vocational rehabilitation system, locomotion, interaction, and display components in an immersive virtual reality system for vocational rehabilitation was evaluated by 10 neurotypical individuals and 9 individuals with high functioning ASD. The results indicated that neurotypical individuals favored real walking over walk-in-place; tangible interaction over haptic device, touch & snap and touch screen; and head mounted display over curtain screen. For the participants with high functioning ASD, real walking was favored over walk-in-place; touch screen was favored over haptic device, tangible interaction and touch & snap; and curtain screen was favored over head mounted display. In the second experiment, eight virtual reality locomotion techniques were evaluated in a room scale tracked area (2m by 2m). These eight locomotion techniques were: redirected walking, walk-in-place, stepper machine, point & teleport, joystick, trackball, hand flapping and flying. Among these locomotion techniques, the three were commonly used in virtual reality (redirected walking, walk-in-place and joystick), the two were unexplored –explored previously only by a few related studies (stepper machine and point & teleport), and the three were selected and/or modified for individuals with ASD based on their common characteristics (trackball, hand flapping and flying). These eight techniques were evaluated in an immersive virtual reality test environment. A user study was performed with 16 neurotypical participants and 15 participants with high functioning ASD. The results indicated that for neurotypical individuals, point & teleport, joystick and redirected walking were suitable virtual reality locomotion techniques for room scale tracked areas whereas hand flapping and flying were not suitable. For individuals with high functioning ASD, point & teleport, joystick and walk-in-place were suitable virtual reality locomotion techniques for room scale tracked areas whereas hand flapping and flying were not suitable. Locomotion techniques that are similar to point & teleport have been starting to be used in commercial video games, however were not evaluated in the literature. For this reason, a separate experiment was performed as the third experiment to investigate the effects of an additional direction specification component of point & teleport. Since this direction specification component exerted an additional cognitive load into the use of the same technique, which was recommended to be avoided for individuals with ASD in the literature, it was only evaluated by neurotypical individuals. An immersive virtual maze environment was developed and a user study was performed with 16 neurotypical users. The results indicated that the additional direction specification feature did not improve the user experience.