Immersive Collaborative Environments Research Articles

BIM-based immersive collaborative environment for furniture, fixture and equipment design

One of the most critical issues related to the current application of virtual reality during design appraisal is the inability to have a collaborative virtual environment where a group of geographically remote stakeholders can interact and communicate effectively in real-time. This paper addresses this shortcoming by proposing a collaborative furniture, fixture and equipment virtual environment (COFFEE) that allows concurrent multi-users to interact, communicate and collaborate virtually during the design appraisal of interior furnishings of a facility The testing of the proposed system among various construction stakeholders (n = 26) to demonstrate the usability and functionality showed high degree of acceptance by stakeholders as a result of improved visualisation, multi-user communication, and collaboration in the virtual environment. In practice COFFEE is expected to assist interior design stakeholders to make informed decisions and create shared understanding before commencement of construction activity.

Effectiveness of an Immersive Virtual Environment for Collaboration With Gesture Support Using Low-Cost Hardware

Since the advent of modern computer-aided design software, engineers have been divorced from the highly collaborative environment previously enjoyed. Today's highly complex designs require modern software tools and the realities of a global economy often constrain engineers to remote collaboration. These conditions make it highly impractical to collaborate locally around physical models. Various approaches to creating new collaboration tools and software, which alleviate these issues, have been tried previously. However, past solutions either used expensive hardware, which is not widely available, or used standard two-dimensional (2D) monitors to share three-dimensional (3D) information. Recently, new low-cost virtual reality (VR) hardware has been introduced, which creates a highly immersive 3D experience at a tiny fraction of the cost of previous hardware. This work demonstrates an immersive collaborative environment built using a network of this hardware, which allows users to interact with gestures virtually and conducts a study to show its advantages over traditional video conferencing software.

Exploring Mixed-methods Instruments for Performance Evaluation of Immersive Collaborative Environments

Presently, there is a clear trend for both businesses and public institutions to move towards open or collaborative innovation. Nevertheless, engaging all stakeholders, especially users, for cocreating innovative solutions and usage scenarios is, as revealed in previous studies, not so obvious. We do believe that Immersive and Collaborative Environments (ICEs) based on the use of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality technologies would be the right place for co-creating, exploring, experimenting and evaluating innovative ideas and concepts in order to quickly reach a common understanding. However, there is a need to design a proper method and instruments that would allow evaluating and comparing ICEs. Our previous paper presented the outcomes of an investigation to identifying and disentangling factors characterising a group immersion and collaboration in the context of co-creation. As a step further, this paper reports about our exploratory study towards the design of mixed methods quantitative and qualitative instruments for the evaluation of Immersive and Collaborative Environments (ICE) based on previously identified factors.

Immersive Collaborative Environments for Teaching and Learning Traditional Design

This paper investigates 3D immersive and collaborative environments designed for educational purposes, as a support for constructivist and experiential learning models, appropriate for artistic education and skill transfer, and in particular for teaching and learning the art of traditional design. The author's research method is based on a comparative analysis of educational environments based on Virtual Reality (VR) and respectively on Augmented Reality (AR)/Mixed Reality (MR) as particular immersive environments for developing student's 3D spatial skills, their cultural awareness and also for enabling self-training and social and professional collaboration. An additional purpose of the paper is to present design criteria to consider when creating high quality virtual educational spaces. The author will apply these findings in a doctoral thesis, and also in a research project at the National University of Arts, Bucharest, regarding an e-learning system for traditional design.

Lowering the Barriers Inherent in Translating Advances in Neuroimage Analysis to Clinical Research Applications

This article presents an initiative for the translation of advances in neuroimage analysis techniques to clinical research scientists. Our objective is to bridge the gap between scientific advances made by the biomedical imaging community and their widespread use in the clinical research community. Through national collaborative effort supported by the National Institutes of Health Roadmap, the integration of the most sophisticated algorithms into usable working open-source systems enables clinical researchers to have access to a broad spectrum of cutting edge analysis techniques. A critical step to maximize the long-term positive impact of this collaborative effort is to translate these techniques into new skills of clinical researchers. To address this challenge, we developed a methodology based on three criteria: a multidisciplinary approach, a balance between theory and common practice, and an immersive collaborative environment. The article illustrates our initiative through the exemplar case of diffusion tensor imaging tractography, and reports on our experience over the past two years of designing and delivering training workshops to more than 300 clinicians and scientists using the developed methodology.

A General Framework for the Development of Web‐Based Instruction

Based on a significant need for categorizing the various components available for use in Web‐based instruction, the authors have developed a hierarchical framework for describing the instructional activities common with this form of instruction. This framework includes six levels ranging from simple information delivery to immersive collaborative environments and includes the general instructional perspective, Web/Internet activities, and specific examples of Web‐based components and tools for each level. It is hoped that this framework will help instructional designers, developers, teachers and trainers in their use of this powerful new instructional tool.