Guest Lectures on VR Technology and Applications

Thursday, June 16th 2005

Niels Jernes Vej 14, Room 4-111

Aalborg University

 

Host and Chairman:

Professor Erik Granum, Computer Vision and Media Technology Laboratory

 

14.00   Professor Bernd Fröhlich, Bauhaus- Univerwität Weimar

Novel Input Devices and Multi-Viewer Display Technology for VR

15.00   Assoc. Prof.  Simeon J. Simoff, University of Technology, Sidney

3D Electronic Institutions

 

Abstracts of Lectures

 

Novel Input Devices and Multi-Viewer Display Technology for VR
Professor Bernd Fröhlich
Faculty of Media, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany


In this talk, we will present a variety of input devices for controlling three-dimensional applications. We will also introduce a scheme for classifying these devices and show how to systematically explore the design space using this scheme. Our GlobeFish device is a 6 DOF desktop device, which allows natural separation of translational and rotational input. Our user tests confirm that the GlobeFish performs better in a 3D docking task than commercially available 6 DOF desktop devices. Other devices are developed for two-handed use in large projection-based environments and they integrate typically twelve or more degrees of freedom. Such configurations allow quasi simultaneous navigation and manipulation without explicit mode changes. Providing multiple tracked viewers with individual stereoscopic images has always been a major challenge for VR systems. We have experimented with several solutions. The most promising approach overlays the images of multiple LCD projectors on top of each other and shutters the projectors and users' eyes in sync. In combination with polarization, four and more users can be supported simultaneously with full resolution stereoscopic images.

 

3D Electronic Institutions

Assoc. Prof, Simeon J. Simoff

Faculty of Information Technology, University of Technology Sidney, Australia

 

Electronic institutions are regulated environments populated by autonomous software agents that perform tasks on behalf of people. These environments have been designed to structure interactions between agents and automate the decision making, within the rules and regulations enabled by the institution. People, however, are reluctant in delegating full control of critical decision-making to agents and prefer to have the final say. They also prefer to interact in "tangible" environments, such as virtual worlds, where they can perceive the environment and act accordingly. 3D electronic institutions aim at getting the best from both sides. The seminar presents  a novel approach that introduces humans to electronic institutions via 3D virtual worlds. The 3D virtual world provides the immersive user interface that allows humans to observe the behavior of their agents as well as the intervention in the agents' decision process if necessary. This is a step beyond the agents view on electronic institutions, taking a human-centered perspective and concentrating on the relation between humans and agents in the amalgamation of 3D electronic institutions. The technolgy is expected to provide new generation of business environments where both humans and agents operate on an equivalent basis and trust each other.