Abstract
In this paper, we present ‘Virtual Observation’ (VO) a software tool for contextual observation and assessment of user’s directly from within the virtual reality (VR) simulation framework. Unlike other recording systems, the VO system described in this paper focuses on recording and reconstructing VR user’s positional, rotational and input data to recreate the same experience the user had with a VR simulation. Different from animation-based approaches, VO records user inputs and reconstructs the simulation from them and the user positional data. Moreover, the system allows the broadcast of this information to a remote machine enabling remote live observation of the simulation. Datasets recorded by the system can be shared by exporting them as XML files or, optionally, into a standalone online application, such as browser WebGL, allowing researchers, developers and educators to share and review a VR user simulation through a free-moving camera using a web browser. In this paper, the consistency of the data generated from the software by the client, server and reconstructed datasets acquired during real-time live observations was evaluated. We conclude that this Virtual Observation software offers detailed reconstruction of low-level information and visual information of user actions during simulations for both live and offline observations. We envision that our system will be of benefit for researchers, developers and educators that work with VR applications.
Highlights
Direct observation of users in their context can offer insight on design challenges (Lazar et al 2017) and circumvent the issue often encountered of users describing inaccurately what they did due to a lack of awareness or understanding of the task or system under study (Blomberg et al 2007)
We demonstrate that: 1. data generated by Virtual Observation’ (VO) can be reliably streamed to a remote machine for real-time live observation of a user virtual reality (VR) session, 2. streamed VO data can be recorded in the observer’s remote machine and that simulations reconstructed from this data are identical to the VO data recorded on the user machine during the user simulation, showing VO reliability in recording VR user sessions, 3
This paper built on Howie and Gilardi’s Virtual Observation system (Howie and Gilardi 2019) for observing the motions, inputs and actions of users in virtual reality simulations
Summary
Direct observation of users in their context can offer insight on design challenges (Lazar et al 2017) and circumvent the issue often encountered of users describing inaccurately what they did due to a lack of awareness or understanding of the task or system under study (Blomberg et al 2007). To observe users using a VR simulation an observer needs to be physically present to observe the user’s body movement in the real world, take notes on what the user does or video record and screen capture the user. Rigorous, this type of observation is difficult, requires large data storage for the videos, can impact the simulation performance and offers limited insight of the users experience and interaction. Observations can be conducted from mirrored perspectives of VR users on 2D screens, but these recordings cannot guarantee knowledge of the state and location of the input devices when the user
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