Photo-based Desktop Virtual Reality System Implemented on a Web-browser

Abstract

Abstract : This paper proposes a novel desktop virtual reality system. Based on the position of the user’s face, the proposed system selects the most appropriate image of an object from a set of photographs taken at various angles, and simply “pastes” it onto the display at the appropriate location and scale. Using this system, the users can intuitively feel the presence of the object. Keywords : Virtual reality, Desktop VR, Photo AR, E-Commerce, Digital signage, HTML5/JavaScript 1. Introduction Virtual Reality (VR) has been evolving constantly since its early days, and is now a fundamental technology in different application areas, including scientific and medical visualization, entertainment, video games, education, and training. One of the aims of this study was to apply VR technology to the display of products on electronic commerce (EC) sites and digital signage. Object VR [1] is one of the notable methods that use the photographs of an object taken at various angles and allows the users to observe it from the angle they desire. On the other hand, Object VR requires dragging the mouse of a computer to change the angle. Therefore, the user does not feel the presence of the object in the display during mouse operation. Previously, a photo-based augmented reality (Photo AR) system that uses the photo images of an object captured at various angles instead of rendering a 3D model corresponding to the object during runtime was proposed [2]. With this system, an appropriate photo image for the position and orientation of the user's camera was selected from previously captured and stored images, and then adjusted and simply “pasted” into the camera view. Because Photo AR displays the object as if it exists right in front of the user, it allows the user to intuitively recognize the object better than Object VR. On the other hand, the user needs to move the camera or marker when he/she wants to check the object at a different angle. Although this operation is more intuitive than dragging the mouse, it is not effective enough. Desktop VR, which is commonly referred to as fish tank VR, is a technology that involves the use of a display of a desktop computer coupled with a head tracker that estimates the user’s head position and updates a 3D projection matrix in real-time [3-5]. This system allows the users to observe virtual images through the display as if they were looking into an actual fish tank. He/she feels the presence of a rendered object in the display because no mouse operation is needed. Although, desktop VR does not provide strong immersion, it is suitable for visualization systems because of its ease of use and ability to present high-quality images. The main obstacle encountered when applying desktop VR to EC sites is that 3D models of all viewable products must be prepared in advance. A typical desktop VR system uses three dimensional computer graphics (3DCG) to render the objects required for a given user's viewpoint. These objects are typically authored using 3D modeling programs. These tools are highly expressive but they also tend to be complex and time-consuming. If the number of viewable products is large, the cost of creating these models will in most cases be prohibitive. 3D reconstruction methods have been proposed [6-8] as an alternative to