Never Blind in VR: Keep Contact With Your Real Surrounding

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hypergeff
One Eyed Hopeful
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:52 am

Never Blind in VR: Keep Contact With Your Real Surrounding

Post by hypergeff »

Never Blind in VR: Enhancing HMD Experiences with Augmented Virtuality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1YTJT8LBII

In this video, we share our findings in building real-time 3D
experiences with consumer headsets so as to go beyond the first
person shooter gaming usage for which they are designed. We
address the key problems of such user experiences which are to
isolate the user from his own body, have him lose contact with other
people in the room and with the real world. To solve those issues
we use an off-the-shelf Kinect for Windows v2 to inject some
reality in the virtuality.

Analyzing the usage of large cubic immersive rooms (CAVEs) in industries such as Automotive or Aerospace, we propose an experience that brings some elements of reality to the eyes of the user of an Oculus Rift, allowing him to see his own body, perceive the real surrounding world and interact with it, as well as have social interactions with other people in the room.

To achieve these results we use a fixed Kinect for Windows that generate a 3D point cloud of the user’s body and of his surroundings.

Although not very dense, the point cloud is surprisingly present to
the user when seen from his eyes through the headset, and vague
enough to not fall into the uncanny valley.

The three features presented in this video are known to bring the following benefits:

1/ Seeing one’s own body
- Reinforces the presence of virtuality and eliminates the odd feeling of not actually being there
- Enables to perceive virtuality at a proper scale
- Gives visual feedback when interacting with real objects

2/ Perceiving the real world
- Removes the feeling of blindness
- Provides a safer experience: prevents from dangers like hitting something, or falling
- Enables interaction with real objects in the world

3/ Perceiving other people
- Reduces the claustrophobic effect of wearing an occluding headset
- Brings non-verbal communication
- Maintains equity amongst people thanks to a symmetrical relation.

About us:
At the heart of the Passion for Innovation Institute (http://www.3ds.com/passion-for-innova...), the iV Lab explores the usage of emerging UX technologies by building and sharing original prototypes; It connects Dassault Systèmes with scientific and technology players in the VR, AR and other domains where the body is highly coupled with the virtual.
Last edited by hypergeff on Wed Jan 21, 2015 8:12 am, edited 2 times in total.
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cybereality
3D Angel Eyes (Moderator)
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Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:18 pm

Re: Never Blind in VR

Post by cybereality »

Very cool.
hypergeff
One Eyed Hopeful
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:52 am

Re: Never Blind in VR

Post by hypergeff »

Thanks :-)

The RoadToVR blog is talking about it also:

News Bits: ‘Never Blind in VR’ Keeps You in Contact with Your Surroundings Using Kinect 2 (video)
http://www.roadtovr.com/news-bits-never ... t-2-video/

We should have the demo at IEEE VR in March
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