Virtual Environments: Applications

Simon Julier, Anthony SteedDepartment of Computer Science

University College London

http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/teaching/VE

Recall Role of Presence in VEs

• Person observing the displays behaves as if the VE is “real”

• When might this be appropriate for an application– When full engagement is necessary?– When want to train for real situations?– Want to convey complex information that benefits from

a spatial layout?– Want to exploit human skills for exploring/understanding

the ambient array of information surrounding them?

Some Applications of VEs

• Simulation and Training• Pyschological Treatment• Medical Diagnosis / Planning / Intervention• Design• Scientific / Information Visualisation• Entertainment

Simulation and Training

• Extremely high fidelity VEs• Particular types of vehicle simulator have been

extremely successful– See Brooks’ paper web site “What’s Real About VR?”

• Successful because the situation of use is limited and “near-field haptics” (i.e. the cab of the vehicle) is a physical copy!– Also one of the very few applications that often uses

motion platforms

Flight Simulator

www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/images/fullsize/flight.simulator.jpg

CAE Airbus 380 Simulator

Ship Bridge Simulator

Battle simulation

Psychological Treatment

• Some types of phobias and stressful events are best treated through exposure therapy– Exposure to feared stimulus repeatedly and for

prolonged period leads to habituation and extinction– Based on learning principles– Reliable findings

• Therapeutic Exposure– Stimulus must be carefully controlled

Fear of Heights - GVU Centre, Georgia Institute of Technology

Arachnophobia - EVL, University of Illinosis, Chicago

Treatment of Phobias

Fear of Public Speaking

COVEN (David-Paul Pertaub and others)

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post-traumatic stress disorder: Virtual Vietnam from www.virtuallybetter.com

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Medical Diagnosis / Planning / Intervention

• Modern medical sensing technology produces a plethora of data– Multi-modal– 3D– Time varying

• Doctors and surgeons have to understand the spatial relationship of this data to use it effectively

Virtual Colonoscopy

Virtual Colonoscopy

Non-invasive MRI used to generate model of colon; colon visualised using “catheter view” of data

Image-Guided Surgery

Super-Imposing View of a Tumour Over a Microscope

QuickTime™ and aYUV420 codec decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Courtesy of Professor David Hawkes, Medical Imaging, Dept. Computer Science, UCL

Medical Virtual Reality

http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/rego/update3/nasmed1.jpg

Design and Evaluation

• Designing products can be extremely expensive– Multiple iterations must be built as physical mockups

• Initial construction costs• Time waiting for the mockups to be built

• Mockups cannot be fully functional– In aircraft, can’t necessarily have real, active controls

• VEs offer a way to design, prototype and test what things will look like

Car Exterior Design

http://www.barco.com/projection_systems/images/CadWall_big.jpg

Car Interior Design

Courtesy of Randall Smith, General Motors

Architecture and Construction

Complex Construction Design

http://aig.cs.man.ac.uk/gallery

Complex Assembly, Maintenance and Repair

http://aig.cs.man.ac.uk/gallery/divipro

Scientific / Information Visualisation

• Complicated data sets are becoming easier to come by– Accurate physical simulations of weather,

measurements from distributed sensor networks, etc.

• This data is often multi-dimensional and difficult to analyse

• By turning the data into something tangible that is visualised, detection and discovery is enabled

Scientific Visualisation

Using a cave to explore a complex biologicalstructure.

THE CAVETracking spinal cord development using CRUMBS. (Rachael Brady, NCSA) archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Divisions/ExternalPrograms/access-dc/rachel.jpg

Virtual Windtunnel - NASA Ames Photo Archive

Scientific Visualisation

Forensics for Car Crash Analysis

Courtesy of Curtis Miller, Miller Visualization

Oil and Gas Exploration

• Networked Visualization in the Oil and Gas Industry http://www.sgi.com/features/2001/jun/statoil/

Collaboration and Entertainment

• The applications so far have mostly involved interaction with data– Visualisation of data / design / engineering

• However, VE systems can be used to support collaboration between people as well

• And, of course, VEs can be used for entertainment as well

Telecollaboration: ‘Office of the Future’

• Camera based reconstruction of an environment and tracking of person

UNC CH

Telecollaboration: Virtual Acting

Digital VCE, COVEN

Entertainment

resumbrae.com/talks/vassar/images/Aladdin4.jpg www.strayvr.com

Improving User’s Experience at the Dentist

Summary

Some applications are possible with extremely cheap hardware– E.g. treatment of arachnophobia

• As applications get more complex must trade off utility against the often onerous cost of engineering the system

• The most expensive “VR” applications are probably flight simulators, but the simulator is still cheaper than flying the real thing