Robert Stone

This special issue completes the set of papers that were first presented at the 8th Annual International Workshop on Presence: PRESENCE 2005 held at University College London (UK), September 21–23, 2005. The first papers from this conference were introduced in Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 15(4). Four of the papers could be viewed together since they stem from a recently completed European Project PRESENCIA in which all the authors participated. The paper by Friedman et al., in the Forum section, describes a large scale experimental study of presence and a multi-level approach to the analysis of the resulting experimental data. They argue that presence-related data may usefully be shared and made available in standardized form, and that this would further the emergence of a scientific study of presence. Specific aspects of that same experiment are also considered in the paper by Slater et al. in this issue (not part of the Special Issue). The paper by Brotons-Mas et al. discusses the role of place-cell neurons in the integration and processing of spatial information and the generation of spatial presence. Their paper demonstrates the deep insight that can be attained by considering the concept of presence from a neuroscience point of view; in particular it helps to explain some well-known results in navigation in VEs. The paper by Leeb et al. essentially applies neuroscience to the achievement of a new kind of interface within virtual environments: moving through a VE by thought. Participants can think of moving their feet and automatically move forward within a VE, or think of their hand and stop—through the exploitation of braincomputer interface technology. Although such research still has a long way to go before it becomes practically useable in the everyday sense, this paper describes results that can be achieved today, and the research field has useful applications in the world of disability. The paper by Hecht et al. examines the issue of multimodality in the context of response times rather than presence directly. They describe an experiment that demonstrates that the greater number of modalities (visual, auditory, and haptic) that are combined in the display of virtual information, the faster the response time of participants within a particular experimental framework. They argue that this could be used as the basis for understanding the cognitive mechanisms behind greater presence being associated with greater multimodality. The remaining two papers deal in different ways with subjectivity of experience in virtual reality. Parés and Parés argue that there must be a model of subjective experience that designers of virtual environment systems can exploit, and they go on to present such a model. Their argument is an important one—since it is clear that there needs to be a virtual reality equivalent of the famous model-view-controller paradigm that came out of the Smalltalk approach to object oriented programming in the late 1980s. Finally, Herrera et al. discuss the relationship between the concepts of agency and presence. They take autism as a particular example of a type of participant within a VE who cannot act “as if” the experience were true, but who rather experience agency—as a relationship between themselves and their environment. Each of these last two papers in the Special Issue presents new viewpoints about virtual environments and presence, and we hope that these will stimulate further debate and further research.

The author reports on the virtual environment remote driving experiment (VERDEX) project carried out at the Advanced Robotics Research Centre. The aim of the project was to develop an experimental test bed for human factors evaluations of virtual reality and telepresence technologies and to study the impact of new human-computer interface and telepresence technologies on the performance of the human operator in control of a remote robotic system. >

PDF corresponds to the article as it appeared upon acceptance. Fully formatted PDF and full text (HTML) versions will be made available soon. Can virtual nature improve patient experiences and memories of dental treatment? A study protocol for a randomized controlled trial Trials 2014, 15:90 doi:10.1186/1745-6215-15-90

The fusion of Virtual Reality and Artificial Life technologies has opened up a valuable and effective technique for research in the field of dynamic archaeological reconstruction. This paper describes early evaluations of simulated vegetation and environmental models using decentralized Artificial Life entities. The results demonstrate a strong feasibility for the application of integrated VR and Artificial Life in solving a 10,000 year old mystery shrouding a submerged landscape in the Southern North Sea, off the east coast of the United Kingdom. Three experimental scenarios with dynamic, “artificial” vegetation are observed to grow, reproduce, and react to virtual environmental parameters in a way that mimics their physical counterparts. Through further experimentation and refinement of the Artificial Life rules, plus the integration of additional knowledge from subject matter experts in related scientific fields, a credible reconstruction of the ancient and, today, inaccessible l...

Previous restorative environment (RE) research suggests that exposure of individuals to natural settings can reduce stress, improve feelings of well-being, and help individuals to recover from fatigue following intensive mental activities. This paper focuses on possible future opportunities for exploring Virtual Environments (VE) in the pursuit of restorative and rehabilitative therapies. The paper presents early work in developing such a Virtual Restorative Environment (VRE) and includes results from two preliminary studies. The first study compared two VEs (an urban city scene and a rural coastal scene) and showed the effect of ambient sounds on ratings of anxiety and relaxation. The second study explored the opportunity of incorporating odours into a VE using a novel olfactory display system and evaluated methods for measuring their effect on the user. Throughout, the paper discusses human factors and usability issues for VRE technologies and future research opportunities.

Detecting emotional responses in multimedia environments is an academically and technologically challenging research issue. In the domain of Affective Computing, from non-interactive and static stimuli (e.g. affective image) to highly interactive and dynamic environments (affective virtual realities), researchers have employed a wide range of affective stimuli to measure and interpret human psychological and physiological emotional behaviours. Various psychophysiological parameters (e.g. Electroencephalography, Galvanic Skin Response, Heart Rate, etc.) have been employed and investigated, in order to detect and quantify human affective states. In this paper, we present a detailed literature review of over 33 affective computing studies, undertaken since 1993. All aspects of these studies (stimuli type, pre-processing, windowing, features, classification technique, etc.) have been reported in detail. We believe that this paper not only summarises the breadth of research over the past...

Over the past decade, the commercial and industrial Virtual Environment (VE) or Virtual Reality (VR) developer community has experienced many problems as a result of the outrageous claims of the early proponents of “immersive” technologies and the dominance of graphics supercomputer companies. Today, the very fact that a commercial, off-the-shelf personal computer, equipped with a low-cost graphics accelerator can out-perform some of its supercomputer “competitors” – at a fraction of the cost it takes to maintain those competitors – has rekindled interest in those commercial and industrial organisations who were once potential adopters of VR for competitive advantage. This paper is a personal reflection on some of the industrial trials and tribulations of the past few years of VR/VE developments and a constructive critique on present academic and commercial research and development trends.

After three decades of “technology push”, Human Factors design techniques and processes are finally being applied to applications of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR, AR) in such sectors as defence, engineering, transportation, medicine and scientific visualisation. However, the importance of Human Factors, or human-centred design, is yet to impact significantly on the Virtual Heritage sector, especially given the recent emergence of new VR and AR technologies, where a preoccupation with unproven and often unreliable examples of “immersive” technologies is already resulting in costly, unusable “interactive” systems. This is unsatisfactory, especially as Virtual Heritage must, out of necessity, engage with individuals from all walks of life, especially those who possess valuable personal recollections or material resources. Furthermore, these are also individuals whose knowledge, skills and abilities must be taken into account from the outset, as these factors are of fundame...

Looks at changes in the human‐computer interface, particularly in the field of using computers for applications which require an accurate registration from an input device in “six degrees of freedom”, including robotics, CAD, anthropometric/biomechanic analysis, military, digital antique cataloguing and archaeological site surveys.

The key bimanual instrument tasks involved in laparoscopic surgery have been abstracted for use in a virtual reality surgical skills evaluator and trainer. The trainer uses two laparoscopic instruments mounted on a frame with position sensors which provide instrument movement data that is translated into interactive real time graphics on a PC (P133, 16 Mb RAM, graphics acceleration card). An accurately scaled operating volume of 10 cm3 is represented by a 3D cube on the computer screen. "Camera" position and size of target objects can be varied for different skill levels. Targets appear randomly within the operating volume according to the skill task and can be grasped and manipulated with the instruments. Accuracy and errors during the tasks and time to completion are logged. Mist VR has tutorial, training, examination, analysis and configuration modes. Six tasks have been selected and include combinations of instrument approach, target acquisition, target manipulation and placement, transfer between instruments, target contact with optional diathermy, and controlled instrument withdrawal/replacement. Tasks can be configured for varying degrees of difficulty and the configurations saved to a library for reuse. Specific task configurations can be assigned to individual students. In the examination mode the supervisor can select the tasks, repetitions and order and save to a specific file for that trainee. Progress can be assessed and there is the option for playback of the training session or examination. Data analyses permit overall, including task, and right or left hand performances to be quantified. Mist VR represents a significant advance over the subjective assessment of training performances with existing "plastic box" basic trainers.

... Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1997 November; 79(6): 403–404. PMCID: PMC2502952. Copyright notice. MIST VR: a virtual reality trainer for laparoscopic surgery assesses performance. ... MIST VR. A laparoscopic surgery procedures trainer and evaluator. Stud Health Technol Inform. ...

the lackof personal contact. Despitethis, most perceivedthis modeof service tobea positive mechanismfor health-care provisionandall werehappytocontinuereceivingpart of their healthcarebymeans of telemedicine. This studyhighlights someof thedifferences patients have identifiedbetweentelemedicine andtraditional on-siteconsultations. Althoughthe patients showedsome measure of satisfactionwiththehealthcare theyreceivedvia telemedicine, theyviewedit asauseful supplement totraditional-style consultations, rather thana replacement.

Virtual reality (VR) has recently become established as a suite of technologies capable of serving many companies′ future needs in design practice, training and organizational communication. Two years after the launch of a major British collaborative project involving 17 blue‐chip companies, VR is set to become adopted by many as their “information technology of choice” for the next century – some even aiming to establish in‐house facilities before the end of 1996. Proposes that, properly implemented, VR is capable of giving personnel at all company levels, who have a wide variety of educational backgrounds or skills, intuitive access to complex, computer‐mediated processes. Discusses some of the practical solutions to a commercially‐driven selection of demonstrator projects, while attempting to dispel some of the myths associated with VR, such as the necessity to don head‐mounted displays and instrumented gloves.

ABSTRACT In this paper we provide a retrospective overview of the evolution of simulation hardware and software technologies, beginning from the early days of the NASA VIEW Virtual Reality system, the European Space Agency's first steps in exploring the capabilities and limitations of immersive technologies for visualization and training, and developments underpinning the delivery of the first interactive 3D model of the Roscosmos Virtual Mir Space Station. Today's best practice, latest developments and future concepts of human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation for the aerospace industry will be presented. The paper discusses additional findings relating to the exploitation and testing of a range of recent VR and serious games applications of relevance to aerospace research, development, education and training in the UK and Russia and seeks to define those issues demanding urgent consideration.

Mastoidectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures relating to the petrous bone. In this paper we describe our preliminary results in the realization of a virtual reality mastoidectomy simulator. Our system is designed to work on patient-specific volumetric object models directly derived from 3D CT and MRI images. The paper summarizes the detailed task analysis performed in order to define the system requirements, introduces the architecture of the prototype simulator, and discusses the initial feedback received from selected end users.

For over two decades, research and clinical projects have exploited Virtual Reality technologies in the treatment of numerous human conditions, from desensitisation regimes combating phobias to the use of distraction and exposure therapies for burns victims and those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders. In contrast to previous “high-tech” interface and combat-oriented approaches to using VR in the psychological rehabilitation process, the present chapter advocates the use of virtual restorative environments (VREs)—the recreation of locations and scenes that, by virtue of their natural beauty and peacefulness, can significantly help to reduce the body’s reactivity to stress and restore cognitive or attentional capacities. The chapter also argues that VREs, suitably enhanced with more interactive and dynamic features, could offer significant benefits to patients in physical rehabilitation programmes. This is especially the case for amputees, for example, who, whilst awaiting the fitting of prosthetic limbs, could undertake competitive and motivational “virtual exercises”, thereby avoiding muscle atrophy and related reductions in residual limb capabilities. The report concludes that the exploitation of simulation technologies in psychological therapies is worthy of continued investigation, especially in the pursuit of enhancing patients’ recovery profiles following surgical procedures, from intensive care to the hospital recovery ward. VREs possess a range of important qualities, not least significant of which is real-time interaction and ease-of-editing, supporting the cost-effective generation of engaging and distributable scenarios that can be tailored relatively easily to meet the needs of individual patients.

... human-centred design issues. With these comments in mind, then, it does appear that serious gaming, as a relatively ''new'' movement in the history of interactive 3D, is offering VR a second chance. One area where the serious ...

... A. Caird-Daley Department of Systems Engineering and Human Factors, Cranfield University, Bedford, UK e-mail: a.caird-daley@cranfield.ac.uk ... The submarine's crew managed to manoeuvre the vessel to thin ice, some 2 miles away, at which point she was able to surface ...

SUMMARYThe UK Advanced Robotics Research Centre's VERDEX Project (Virtual Environment demote Driving Experiment) is an experimental test bed for investigating telepresence and virtual reality technologies in the design of human-system interfaces for telerobots. The achievements of the Project to date include the transformation of scanning laser rangefinder output to stereo virtual imagery (viewed using the VPL EyePhoneTM), the Teletact® Tactile Feedback Glove (for use with the VPL DataGloveTM), a high-speed, head-slaved stereo TV system, and a T800/i860 SuperVisionTM graphics/video parallel processing system.

This article looks at the teaching aspects of virtual reality, as opposed to the use of virtual reality as a teaching tool (in virtual teaching environments). It is motivated by a perceived need for clarity, focus, and dialogue that are lacking within the VR community of developers, instructors, and end users. The market for visualization/3D computer graphics/simulations has seen a steady growth over the last decade. Yet, despite success stories in oil exploration, military training, car manufacturing, and other sectors, the VR curriculum has been fragmented and heterogeneous. The most longevity and success has been shown by programs that are designed to satisfy a societal need, such as the MOVES Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School (USA). The difficulty in adequately teaching VR may be related to the expense of setting up dedicated laboratories, and the lack of supporting textbooks in the 1990s. Yet such laboratories and books are key to gaining true understanding of the VR d...

... cost-effective means of supporting the development of human skills in all manner of applications, from automotive engineering to defence, surgery to education, retail, petrochemical exploration, and heritage to micro ... Keywords: virtual reality; CBT; training; human-centred design. ...

... Society 41st Annual Meeting, Human Factors & Ergonomics Society, Santa Monica (1997) p. 1143–1149 . † Now at Virtual Reality Applications Research Team (VIRART), University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. email: alex.stedmon@nottingham.ac ...

Turn the clock back no more than 24 months. Quite sophisticated examples of virtual reality (VR) in fields as diverse as defense, surgery, and engi-neering were becoming widespread throughout the computer graphics community but stood very little chance of reaching ...

Exposure of individuals to natural environments, such as forests and coastlines, can promote stress reduction and assist in mental recovery following intensive cognitive activities. Settings as simple as hospital window views onto garden-like scenes can also be influential in reducing patients' postoperative recovery periods and analgesic requirements. This paper reviews the evidence supporting the exploitation of these restorative natural environments in future healthcare strategies. The paper also describes early research addressing the development of multisensory, computer-generated restorative environments for the benefit of patients with a variety of psychologically related conditions (including depression, attention deficit disorder, pain, and sleep deficit), who may be unable to access and experience real natural environments, such as those in hospices, military rehabilitation centers, and long-term care facilities. The Table of Contents art is a virtual reconstruction of Wembury Bay, in the southwest of the UK, based on imported Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) to provide the topography and a high-resolution aerial image to provide a template for the location of 3D building and vegetation models, rock features, and pathways. The 3D environment is rendered using the Unity 3 Game Development Tool and includes spatial sound effects (waves, wind, birdsong, etc.), physics-based features (such as early morning sea mist), time-of-day cycles, and real-time weather changes. The Village Church of St. Werburgh can also be seen in this image.

... Yet to many, the very fact that the arena is so wide-ranging is perceived to be a major problem in bringing stability to those product and service companies who are attempting to stay afloat in the VE community's turbulent waters. ...