Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The ability of virtual reality (VR) active games to elicit moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) has yet to be fully understood. Also, whether VR combined with physical activity could have a greater pain reducing effect compared to non-active VR distraction remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of commercial VR active games on physical activity intensity levels, enjoyment, and pain sensitivity in young health adults. Thirty-six (18 males, 18 females) participants completed four study sessions, with each devoted to playing one VR game for fifteen minutes. The games included Beat Saber, Holopoint, Hot Squat, and Relax Walk VR. Levels of physical activity reached during VR gameplay were measured with percentage of heart rate reserve (%HRR), ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), and accelerometry. Enjoyment was measured with a visual analog scale and the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale following each gaming session. Pressure pain thresholds (PPT’s) of the dominant forearm and ipsilateral thigh were conducted before and after VR gameplay. The primary outcome measures were analyzed with mixed model ANOVAs. The %HRR and RPE results showed that only Hot Squat consistently elicited moderate intensity activity. Accelerometry data showed that Hot Squat and Holopoint elicited higher whole body and lower body intensity levels than Beat Saber and Relax Walk VR. For enjoyment, Beat Saber and Holopoint were rated higher than Hot Squat and Relax Walk VR. Results for pressure pain thresholds (PPT’s) showed 1) an overall acute hypoalgesic effect on the forearm and thigh following all VR games, and 2) an enhanced hypoalgesic effect (combining MVPA and VR distraction) on the thigh following Hot Squat. Overall, results from this study suggest that active VR games can elicit varying degrees of physical activity intensity levels in young healthy adults, with Hot Squat eliciting moderate intensity activity. Thus, active VR games could be an alternative and enjoyable mode of obtaining physical activity. This study also showed that active VR games can elicit an acute hypoalgesic effect, with the effect potentially exacerbated with greater movement during gameplay.

Mobile virtual reality has the potential to improve learning experiences by making them more immersive and engaging for students. This type of virtual reality also aims to be more cost effective by using a smartphone to drive the virtual reality experience. One issue with mobile virtual reality is that the screen (i.e. main interface) of the smartphone is occluded by the virtual reality headset. To investigate solutions to this issue, this project details the development and testing of a computer vision based controller that aims to have a cheaper per unit cost when compared to a conventional electronic controller by making use of 3D printing and the built-in camera of a smartphone. Reducing the cost per unit is useful for educational contexts as solutions would need to scale to classrooms sizes. The research question for this project is thus, “can a computer vision based virtual reality controller provide comparable immersion to a conventional electronic controller”. It was found that a computer vision based controller can provide comparable immersion, though it is more challenging to use. This challenge was found to contribute more towards engagement as it did not diminish the performance of users in terms of question scores.

No / This paper presents realistic avatar movements using a limited number of sensors. An inverse kinematics algorithm, SHAKF, is used to configure an articulated skeletal model, and a neural network is employed to predict the movement of joints not bearing sensors. The results show that the neural network is able to give a very close approximation to the actual rotation of the joints. This allows a substantial reduction in the number of sensors to configure an articulated human skeletal model.

This study investigated the link between age and gender susceptibility to simulator-induced sickness in conjunction with display type. Simulator-induced sickness and ataxia were measured before and after exposure to a medium-fidelity driving simulator. Participants in four age and gender categories (older and younger males and females) operated the simulator with a consumer-grade head-mounted display (HMD), and then with a large screen, direct-view plasma display. This study set out to recommend a particular display type that would be appropriate for use with particular age/gender groups in a general-purpose driving simulator. Unfortunately, practice effects affected the simulator-induced sickness and driving performance results for display type, which precludes making recommendations regarding the appropriate use of each display. Despite this, several important discoveries were made, including: 1) older participants did experience significantly increased simulator-induced sickness discomfort than the younger participants - regardless of display type; and 2) there was no significant difference found between genders in either simulator-induced sickness or driving performance; although females generally expressed a subjective preference for the direct-view display. Display type was not found to affect the degree of ataxia experienced by participants; however, this study did find that although older participants exhibited significantly higher rates of simulator-induced sickness discomfort than the younger participants, they recovered their postural equilibrium significantly faster. This indicates that the older participants had greater difficulty adapting to the simulation environment than younger persons. It also suggests that younger persons are at greater risk during immediate post-simulation activities such as driving. Although it is likely that this effect would disappear over time, it has implications for agencies such as the Department of Motor Vehicles or drivers education schools that are considering the use of a driving simulator device before an on-road skills test. / Master of Science

Muted Blue (Whale Level) is a Virtual Reality educational experience that explores the possibility of creating an alternative learning method in an informal learning setting such as a museum. This project seeks to merge art, technology and education to create an immersive, interactive learning experience that is geared toward Gen Z and Millennial but can be enjoyed by every age group. Unreal 4 game engine along with other 3D packages made it possible to develop a Virtual Reality experience that can be used as a complimentary piece that can possibly exist along side a museum exhibit. / Master of Fine Arts / Muted Blue (Whale Level) is an interactive museum experience that aims to give audience a more informative and interactive digital experience. The main focus of Muted Blue is allowing users to explore and learn at their own pace. This Virtual Reality Museum idea in particular, is geared toward the potential museum goers that are in the Gen Z and Millennial generations because technology has been an integral part of their lives. Muted Blue (Whale Level) is capable of creating an impossible space that cannot be recreated inside of a real museum while providing meaningful, educational information along with beautiful visuals that will assist with the learning process and inspire the users to learn and care more about our ocean.

Virtual Reality is a young field and needs more research to mature. In order to help speed the maturity process research was performed to see if knowledge from the domain of software engineering could be applied to the development of Virtual Reality software. Software engineering is a field within computer science that studies how to improve both product and process. One of the sub-fields of software engineering is metrics, which seeks to measure software products and processes. This allows for prediction of certain attributes such as quality. There are several software toolkits that exist in virtual reality that have not had formal software engineering methodologies applied during their development. This research looks at applying knowledge gained from the metrics discipline to the software toolkits used in virtual reality. When metrics are used to measure the toolkits in virtual reality, the metrics seem to behave--produce similar significant correlations--in a similar fashion as when they are applied in previously studied domains. / Master of Science

<p dir="ltr">This study talks about the use of Nanite in Unreal Engine 5.3 in a VR environment and evaluates its impact on scene performance and image quality. Through experimental studies, it was found that Nanite significantly reduced the number of triangles and draw calls for complex scenes. However, Nanite may have caused FPS drops and excessive GPU load, limiting its application areas. Additionally, as a prior condition for Nanite, disabling forward shading reduces performance even though it has positive impacts on graphic quality. The results show that Nanite may have potential in VR environments but requires further optimization to improve its performance. Future research should focus on new optimization methods and expand the use of Nanite in different fields while hardware technology improves.</p>

VR står för Virtual Reality och används idag ofta för utbildning, både inom skola och yrkesgrupper då det har uppvisat goda resultat och är relativt billigt att utföra jämfört med att träna till exempel personal inom brandkår, sjukhus och polis. Finns det en applikation där flera användare inklusive en instruktör kan samverka oberoende plats och plattform blir det bättre ur både logistiskt och ekonomiskt perspektiv. Det finns idag ingen standardiserad modell för notifikationer inom VR och därför finns det en mängd olika modeller för att fånga användarens uppmärksamhet. Det här arbetet handlar om att undersöka webbläsaren som verktyg för en Virtual Reality- applikation där flera användare samtidigt kan använda applikationen oberoende av vilken plattform som används. Anledningen till att det skall fungera för flera användare samtidigt är för att applikationen är till för träning inför akuta situationer och då skall både instruktör och användare kunna vara i applikationen samtidigt.  Arbetet handlar också om att ta reda på vilken av de två notifikationsmodeller som i det här arbetet testas är det mest tidseffektiva vid träning av brandkår med hjälp av VR-teknik. Resultatet har framkommit genom utförda användartester genomförda med hjälp av en prototyp som har utvecklats; samt intervjuer av de testpersoner som har deltagit i användartester. Testpersonerna delades upp i två lika stora grupper på 10 st i varje grupp för att testa två olika notifikationsmodeller. De testade notifikationsmodeller är en statisk nödutgångsskylt och en visuell vägvisare i form av en pil i golvet som rör sig i för scenariots uppgift rätt riktning. Uppgiften som testpersonerna fick var att ta sig från en punkt till en annan i en rökfylld lokal på så snabb tid som möjligt, med hjälp av den notifikation som tilldelades. Testpersonerna rangordnades efter att samtliga test var genomförda. Den som klarat sig bäst i den ena gruppen jämfördes med den som klarat sig bäst i den andra gruppen och så vidare. Resultatet visar tendenser åt att den visuella vägvisaren var den mest effektiva av de två notifikationsmodeller som testades. Deltagarna i gruppen som använde den visuella sökvägen presterade något bättre, vilket indikerar en trend mot preferenser för den notifikations modellen framför den statiska nödutgångsskylten.

One of the biggest issues facing VR as a platform is the limitation of the user’s physical space. Not everyone has a lab, empty warehouse, or open space in their home or office, and even if they do, the hardware also limits the physical space the user can take advantage of. Fitting the entirety of the environment within few square meters is a strict limitation for many applications. A method of moving the user within a larger space is needed, but current methods come with drawbacks. Developing a new movement method that avoids these drawbacks will help ensure a better experience for the user.

published_or_final_version / Computer Science and Information Systems / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy