High-fidelity Experience Research Articles

Passive Haptics and Conversational Avatars for Interacting with Ancient Egypt Remains in High-Fidelity Virtual Reality Experiences

As extended reality continues to grow, new possibilities arise to provide users with novel ways to experience cultural heritage (CH). In particular, applications based on virtual reality (VR), such as virtual museums, have gained increasing popularity, since they can offer new ways for preserving and presenting CH content that are not feasible in physical museums. Despite the numerous benefits, the level of immersion and presence provided by VR experiences still present challenges that could hinder the effectiveness of this technology in the CH context. In this perspective, it is crucial to provide the users with high-fidelity experiences, in which also the interaction with the objects and the characters populating virtual environments are realistic and natural. This article focuses on this challenge and specifically investigates how the combined use of tangible and speech interfaces can help improve the overall experience. To this aim, a immersive VR experience is proposed, which allows the users to manipulate virtual objects belonging to a museum collection (in the specific case, Ancient Egypt remains) by physically operating on 3D printed replicas and to talk with a curator’s avatar to get explanations by using their voice. A user study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the considered interfaces on immersion, presence, user experience, usability, and intention to visit, comparing the richest configuration against simpler setups obtained by either removing the tangible interface, the speech interface, or both (and using only handheld controllers). The results show that the combined use of the two interfaces can effectively contribute at making the CH experience in VR more engaging.

A High-Fidelity Percutaneous Model Used to Demonstrate ECMO Cannulation.

Medical simulation provides a realistic environment for practitioners to experience a planned clinical event in a controlled educational setting. We established a simulation model composed of synthetic ballistic gelatin that provided an inexpensive high-fidelity model for our extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) team members to develop, master, and maintain clinical skills necessary for percutaneous cervical or femoral cannulation. The simulation component includes a cervical torso or femoral percutaneous synthetic gelatin model that is attached to either a static fluid model or to the high-fidelity perfusion simulator. Either model can be accessed with ultrasound guidance, cannulated with appropriately sized cannula, and connected to an in situ ECMO circuit. This article explains how the model is made and connected to the simulator with the purpose of re-creating this high-fidelity experience at any institution.

A High-Fidelity Percutaneous Model Used to Demonstrate ECMO Cannulation

Medical simulation provides a realistic environment for practitioners to experience a planned clinical event in a controlled educational setting. We established a simulation model composed of synthetic ballistic gelatin that provided an inexpensive high-fidelity model for our extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) team members to develop, master, and maintain clinical skills necessary for percutaneous cervical or femoral cannulation. The simulation component includes a cervical torso or femoral percutaneous synthetic gelatin model that is attached to either a static fluid model or to the high-fidelity perfusion simulator. Either model can be accessed with ultrasound guidance, cannulated with appropriately sized cannula, and connected to an in situ ECMO circuit. This article explains how the model is made and connected to the simulator with the purpose of re-creating this high-fidelity experience at any institution.

Virtual Gaming Simulation: An Interview Study of Nurse Educators

Background. Two methods that provide high fidelity experiences outside of clinical settings are laboratory simulation and virtual simulation. Virtual gaming simulations are emerging and currently, there are no guidelines regarding the process. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to conduct interviews with nursing educators who use virtual gaming simulation in education to better understand the extent of use, the process, the challenges and benefits they experience, and their recommendations. Design. A qualitative, descriptive study, using purposive maximum variation sampling and interviews was conducted. Setting/Participant. Participants were selected from nursing programs in different Canadian and American educational institutions who had teaching experience using virtual gaming simulations with nursing students in higher education. Methods. In-depth interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide with opened-ended questions. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data analysis was completed using a thematic approach. Results. The final sample consisted of 17 participants, 11(65%) were from Canada and the remaining 6(35%) were from the United States. The data yielded three themes: Benefits of gaming for the student; Preparing students and educators for success and, The virtual gaming simulation process. Participants described the challenges of using virtual gaming simulation in education and made recommendations for best practice and future research. Conclusion. The results of this study can be used as guideposts for educators who embark on this new learning experience and researchers who wish to expand the body of knowledge in this emerging field.

Supporting Mobile VR in LTE Networks

In recent years, we have witnessed a boom in virtual reality (VR). 21 million wearable VR headsets are projected to be shipped in 2017, resulting in $4.9 billion revenue [3]. Among all the options, the mobile VR empowered by phones is most popular, contributing 98% of the sales [1]. Despite at early stage, it appeals to the general public with low cost (~$100) and excellent convenience (no wiring). Mobile VR aims to offer users ubiquitous and high-fidelity experiences. If achieved, users can access VR "anytime, anywhere", regardless of whether they roam or remain static. They also receive smooth, high-resolution panorama views throughout VR experience. It thus demands high bandwidth and stringent end-to-end latency to synchronize the graphical displays with the user motions. A promising approach to enabling ubiquitous mobile VR is the edge-based scheme over 4G LTE networks. As shown in Figure 1, the VR headset reports sensory user motions to edge servers through the LTE network. The edge servers accept user input and deliver the requested graphics. They thus offload computation-intensive processing tasks from the battery-powered user devices. Ubiquitous access is provided by the LTE network, the only large-scale wireless infrastructure offering universal coverage and seamless mobility. In this work [2], we examine several common perceptions, and study medium-quality mobile VR (60 frames per second and 1080p resolution) over operational LTE networks. We show that, contrary to common understandings, bandwidth tends to be not the main bottleneck for medium-quality VR. Instead, network latency poses the biggest obstacle for the mobile VR. A bulk portion of network latency does not stem from wireless data transfer, but from LTE signaling operations to facilitate wireless data delivery. These operations exhibit two categories of latency deficiency: (1) Inter-protocol incoordination, in which problematic interplays between protocols unnecessarily incur delays; (2) Single-protocol overhead, in which each protocol's signaling actions unavoidably incur delays. Our analysis, together with 8-month empirical studies over 4 US mobile carriers, looks into five common beliefs on LTE network latency under both static and mobile scenarios and shows that they are wrong. In fact, they pose as roadblocks to enable mobile VR. Our three findings are centered on three existing mechanisms for data-plane signaling, which are all well known in the literature. However, their deficiencies have not been studied from the latency perspective, particularly for delay-sensitive mobile VR applications. We further describe a new finding that incurs long latency but has not been reported in the literature. Moreover, we quantify the impact of each finding under VR traffic. We devise LTE-VR, a device-side solution to mobile VR without changing hardware or infrastructure. It adapts the signaling operations, while being standard compliant. It reactively mitigates unnecessary latency among protocols and proactively masks unavoidable latency inside each protocol. It exploits two ideas. First, it applies cross-layer design to ensure fast loss detection and recovery and minimize duplicates during handover. Second, it leverages rich side-channel info only available at the device to reduce the latency. We have prototyped LTE-VR with USRP and OpenAirInterface. Our evaluation shows that, LTE-VR reduces the frequency of frames that miss the human tolerance by 3.7× on average. It meets the delay tolerance with 95% probability, which approximates the lower bounds. It also achieves latency reduction comparable to 10× wireless bandwidth expansion. Furthermore, LTE-VR incurs marginal signaling overhead (5% more messages) and extra resource (0.1% more bandwidth and 2.3% more radio grants). We further note that our findings would carry over to the upcoming 5G. LTE-VR is as well applicable to 5G scenarios. It complements the proposed 5G radio, while provides hints for 5G signaling design.

Integrating Gerontology and Community Concepts Through Simulation.

This article describes an innovative simulation experience for nursing students. Faculty from a community health nursing course and a course in gerontology worked together to provide a comprehensive simulation experience that combined low-fidelity and high-fidelity experiences that provided an integrated learning experience and gave faculty with an opportunity to collaborate to improve outcomes. Student and faculty feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Future plans include incorporating a third didactic course, Leadership and Management, and working with other disciplines to demonstrate interprofessional collaboration.

Principal considerations for the contemporary high-fidelity endovascular simulator design used in training and evaluation

The simulation and rehearsal of virtual endovascular procedures are anticipated to improve the outcomes of actual procedures. Contemporary, high-fidelity simulation is based on feedback systems that combine concepts of mechanical, electrical, computer, and control systems engineering to reproduce an interactive endovascular case. These sophisticated devices also include psychometric instruments for objective surgical skill assessment. The goal of this report is to identify the design characteristics of commercially available simulators for endovascular procedures and to provide a cross-section comparison across all devices to aid in the simulator selection process. Data were obtained (1) by a standard questionnaire issued to four simulator companies prompting for relevant design details of each model for the expressed purpose of publication, (2) from each manufacturer's respective website including appended sales brochures and specification sheets, and (3) by an evaluation of peer-reviewed literature. Focus topics include haptic technology, vessel segmentation, physiologic feedback, performance feedback, and physical logistics (ie, weight, dimensions, and portability). All data sources were surveyed between January 1, 2012, and June 30, 2013. All of the commercially available, high-fidelity endovascular simulators use interactive virtual environments with preprogrammed physics and physiology models for accurate reproduction of surgical reality. The principal differences between devices are the number of access sites and haptic devices, the ability to reconstruct patient-specific anatomy for preprocedural rehearsal, and the available peripheral training modalities. Hardware and software options can also vary within the same device in comparing patient-specific with generic cases. Despite our limited knowledge about the potential of high-fidelity simulation within the endovascular world, today's currently available simulators successfully provide high-fidelity reproductions of the endovascular environment. We have found that all of the commercially available devices incorporate the necessary features for a high-fidelity experience: (1) haptic technology, (2) vessel reconstruction, (3) physiology feedback, and (4) performance feedback. Significant variations in design do exist and may influence differences in skill development, evaluation, or cost. However, further validation of these differences is still needed and would benefit program directors interested in expanding these platforms for vascular training and certification as this technology matures.

New Landscapes and New Eyes: The Role of Virtual World Design for Supply Chain Education

With the common availability of advanced educational technology, we are able to increase the emphasis on the design of learning experiences and benefit from the given flexibility and variety of opportunities to create learning spaces. As instructional design models become more commonplace we examine their role vis-a-vis with the fidelity of the experience while learning. High- fidelity experiences are known to be valuable in learning as they provide authenticity in learning and motivation; yet, high fidelity comes at the cost of greater investment. In this paper we outline our experiments with two setups of differing levels of fidelity: using Second Life and the consumer-focused Oculus Rift Head-Mounted Display (HMD). We show qualitatively interpreted comments and user responses to demonstrate importance of the level of fidelity, uncover important elements, and relate back the fidelity to the learning experience. High-fidelity experiences can be supported by software and hardware that are now readily available but present the seductive opportunity to greatly improve participant engagement in the virtual environments presented.

A High-Fidelity Orchestra Simulator for Individual Musicians’ Practice

Abstract We developed the Open Orchestra system to provide individual musicians with a high-fidelity experience of ensemble rehearsal or performance, combined with the convenience and flexibility of solo study. This builds on the theme of an immersive orchestral simulator that also supports the pedagogical objective of instructor feedback on individual recordings, as needed to improve one's performance. Unlike previous systems intended for musical rehearsal, Open Orchestra attempts to offer both an auditory and a visual representation of the rest of the orchestra, spatially rendered from the perspective of the practicing musician. We review the objectives and architecture of our system, describe the functions of our digital music stand, discuss the challenges of generating the media content needed for this system, and describe provisions for offering feedback during rehearsal.