Immersive Visualization System Research Articles

Is Native Naïve? Comparing Native Game Engines and WebXR as Immersive Analytics Development Platforms.

Native game engines have long been the 3-D development platform of choice for research in mixed and augmented reality. For this reason, they have also been adopted in many immersive visualization and immersive analytics systems and toolkits. However, with the rapid improvements of WebXR and related open technologies, this choice may not always be optimal for future visualization research. In this article, we investigate common assumptions about native game engines versus WebXR and find that while native engines still have an advantage in many areas, WebXR is rapidly catching up and is superior for many immersive analytics applications.

Context Awareness and Deep Learning Algorithms, Immersive Visualization and Autonomous Cognitive Systems, and Natural Language Processing and Digital Twin Modeling Tools in the Blockchain-based Metaverse

Context Awareness and Deep Learning Algorithms, Immersive Visualization and Autonomous Cognitive Systems, and Natural Language Processing and Digital Twin Modeling Tools in the Blockchain-based Metaverse

Context Modeling and Ambient Scene Detection Tools, Machine Learning-based Object Recognition and Distributed Sensing Technologies, and Immersive Visualization and Haptic Augmented Reality Systems in the Decentralized Metaverse

Context Modeling and Ambient Scene Detection Tools, Machine Learning-based Object Recognition and Distributed Sensing Technologies, and Immersive Visualization and Haptic Augmented Reality Systems in the Decentralized Metaverse

Intuitive and immersive teleoperation of robot manipulators for remote decontamination

Abstract Worker safety is one of the most important aspects of decontamination tasks in hazardous environments. This motivates the development of (semi-) autonomous robotic systems that can be teleoperated from a safe distance using simple commands such as ‘move the manipulator over there and grab’. In this paper, we introduce a new control station concept called Digital Twin Control System aimed at robots with manipulator arms. It consists of three components: (1) A unified communication interface that abstracts the remote robot’s functionalities into easy-to-use interaction modes, (2) an immersive visualization and assistant system to operate the interface, and (3) a haptic rendering system that can simulate arbitrary robot arms. We demonstrate how the proposed system can be used by untrained operators to pick up contaminated objects remotely in a test scenario.

Deep Learning-based Sensing Technologies, Data Modeling and Simulation Tools, and 3D Virtual Equipment Monitoring and Immersive Visualization Systems in Urban Geopolitics and Internet of Things-enabled Smart Cities

Deep Learning-based Sensing Technologies, Data Modeling and Simulation Tools, and 3D Virtual Equipment Monitoring and Immersive Visualization Systems in Urban Geopolitics and Internet of Things-enabled Smart Cities

Working in the Metaverse: Virtual Recruitment, Cognitive Analytics Management, and Immersive Visualization Systems

Working in the Metaverse: Virtual Recruitment, Cognitive Analytics Management, and Immersive Visualization Systems

Virtual Retail in the Metaverse: Customer Behavior Analytics, Extended Reality Technologies, and Immersive Visualization Systems

Virtual Retail in the Metaverse: Customer Behavior Analytics, Extended Reality Technologies, and Immersive Visualization Systems

Immersive Visualization Systems, Spatial Simulation and Environment Mapping Algorithms, and Decision Intelligence and Modeling Tools in the Web3-powered Metaverse World

Immersive Visualization Systems, Spatial Simulation and Environment Mapping Algorithms, and Decision Intelligence and Modeling Tools in the Web3-powered Metaverse World

Geospatial Mapping Technologies, Predictive Modeling Algorithms, and Immersive Visualization Systems in the Virtual Economy of the Metaverse

Geospatial Mapping Technologies, Predictive Modeling Algorithms, and Immersive Visualization Systems in the Virtual Economy of the Metaverse

Immersive Visualization and Multi-Sensor Fusion Systems, Process Simulation and Modeling Technologies, and Digital Twin Connected Factories and Virtual Plant Floor Networks in the Industrial Metaverse

Immersive Visualization and Multi-Sensor Fusion Systems, Process Simulation and Modeling Technologies, and Digital Twin Connected Factories and Virtual Plant Floor Networks in the Industrial Metaverse

NeuroCave: A web-based immersive visualization platform for exploring connectome datasets.

We introduce NeuroCave, a novel immersive visualization system that facilitates the visual inspection of structural and functional connectome datasets. The representation of the human connectome as a graph enables neuroscientists to apply network-theoretic approaches in order to explore its complex characteristics. With NeuroCave, brain researchers can interact with the connectome—either in a standard desktop environment or while wearing portable virtual reality headsets (such as Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear, or Google Daydream VR platforms)—in any coordinate system or topological space, as well as cluster brain regions into different modules on-demand. Furthermore, a default side-by-side layout enables simultaneous, synchronized manipulation in 3D, utilizing modern GPU hardware architecture, and facilitates comparison tasks across different subjects or diagnostic groups or longitudinally within the same subject. Visual clutter is mitigated using a state-of-the-art edge bundling technique and through an interactive layout strategy, while modular structure is optimally positioned in 3D exploiting mathematical properties of platonic solids. NeuroCave provides new functionality to support a range of analysis tasks not available in other visualization software platforms.

A Computer Aided Education System Based on Augmented Reality by Immersion to 3-D Magnetic Field

An immersive real-time visualization system of 3-D magnetic field for educational purposes is presented. This immersive visualization system is based on augmented reality technology. The proposed system provides observation of a magnetic field distribution and its stereoscopic vision in 3-D space using head mounted display. To improve the visualization capabilities, a new real-time method for drawing magnetic flux lines in 3-D space is developed and presented in this paper. It enables a user to easily observe and grasp a magnetic field generated by multiple sources (e.g., magnets and/or multiple coils) in an augmented 3-D space. Additionally, it permits a user to freely and interactively move the magnetic sources within the visualization space and to observe the magnetic fields interference in real-time. As a result, one can intuitively and easy visualize, observe and grasp the magnetic field even in 3-D space.

An efficient approach to playback of stereoscopic videos using a wide field-of-view

The MARquette Visualization Lab (MARVL) contains a clusterbased large-scale immersive visualization system to display and interact with stereoscopic content that has been filmed or computergenerated. MARVL uses head-mounted and augmented reality devices as portable sources for displaying this unique content. Traditional approaches to video playback using a plane fall short with larger immersive field-of-view (FOV) systems such as those used by MARVL. We therefore developed an approach to playback of stereoscopic videos in a 3D world where depth is determined by the video content. Objects in the 3D world receive the same video texture but computational efficiency is derived using UV texture offsets as opposing halves of a frame-packed 3D video. Left and right cameras are configured in Unity via culling masks so that they only uniquely show the texture for the corresponding eye. The camera configuration is then constructed through code at runtime using MiddleVR for Unity 4, and natively in Unity 5. This approach becomes more difficult with multiple cameras and maintaining stereo alignment for the full FOV, but has been used successfully in MARVL for applications including employee wellness initiatives, interactivity with high-performance computing results, and navigation within the physical world.

Mobile, Low-Cost, and Large-Scale Immersive Data Visualization Environment for Civil Engineering Applications

AbstractThis case study presents the design and development of a three-dimensional (3D) immersive visualization system constructed from commercial off-the-shelf components and open-source software that is intended to address the following key challenges for the practical use of immersive environments: (1) extreme costs in both hardware and software; (2) immobility due to calibration and darkroom requirements; and (3) extensive and expensive manpower requirements for both operation and maintenance. The system—called the VuePod—uses 12 consumer grade passive 3D television monitors, an active tracking system, and a modular construction approach. The VuePod capitalizes on recent functional advancements and cost decreases in both hardware and software and is demonstrated herein as a viable alternative to prohibitively expensive projector-based walk-in computer automatic virtual environments (CAVEs). The case study presents a full description of the hardware and its assembly, the software and its configuration,...

Force Feedback in String based Haptic Systems

In this paper the force feedback computation is investigated for improving the quality of the haptic feedback in virtual reality applications. The chosen structure for the force feedback device is string based and characterized by 3 degrees of freedom (force-feedback only) or 6 degrees of freedom (force and torque feedback). This haptic device is used together with a three-sided stereoscopic immersive visualization system to convincingly create sensations associated with forces and also with the shape and texture of the displayed objects. Feelings in general are not easy to simulate by computer technology and haptic information (force and torque feedback) can be distorted by incorrect distribution of the tension forces in the strings or delays in the computation process, because it must be updated at very high rate (approximately 1000Hz). In this paper a new method is suggested, in which the number of computation step is fixed and the amount of calculation is low and always limited.

Bidirectional Coupling Between 3-D Field Simulation and Immersive Visualization Systems

The interactive exploration of complex simulation data have spurred a renewed interest in visualization techniques, because of their ability to give an intuitively clue for the interpretation of electromagnetic phenomena. This paper presents a methodology for a bidirectional coupling of VTK-based visualization systems to interactive and immersive visualization systems which are specially adopted for the handing and processing of large and transient simulation data. In this work, the coupling is demonstrated by the flexible virtual reality (VR) software framework ViSTA which is used by many national and international research groups.

A Flexible Framework for Wide‐Spectrum VR Development

This paper presents results and experiences coming from 10 years of development and use of XVR, a flexible, general-purpose framework for virtual reality (VR) development. The resulting architecture, that comes under the form of a self-sufficient integrated development environment (IDE) organized around a dedicated scripting language and a virtual machine, is able to accommodate a wide range of applications needs, ranging from simple Web3D applications to motion-based simulators or complex cluster-based immersive visualization systems. Within the framework a common, archetypical structure is used for any application, showing how inhomogeneous needs and technologies can be effectively covered by using a single, rather simple, system organization. We also show how the framework flexibility allows for innovative development techniques such as multiple frameworks coexisting within a single, tightly integrated, VR application.

Analyzing the performance of a cluster-based architecture for immersive visualization systems

Cluster computing has become an essential issue for designing immersive visualization systems. This paradigm employs scalable clusters of commodity computers with much lower costs than would be possible with the high-end, shared memory computers that have been traditionally used for virtual reality purposes. This change in the design of virtual reality systems has caused some development environments oriented toward shared memory computing to require modifications to their internal architectures in order to support cluster computing. This is the case of VR Juggler, which is considered one of the most important virtual reality application development frameworks based on open source code. This paper not only describes in detail the mechanisms based on cluster computing included in the internal design of VR Juggler, but also proposes a new global performance evaluation methodology. The goal of this methodology is to test the graphical performance of immersive visualization systems based on clusters of computers in terms of both network latency and number of nodes in the cluster. In this sense, a performance evaluation of VR Juggler, both in an overall and a modular approach, is presented. The obtained results show that VR Juggler can be considered as an efficient tool to support immersive visualization systems on a cluster of computers.

Lower cost spatially immersive visualization for human environments

Access to computer simulation and computer based visualization has dramatically impacted our ability to design complex human environments. Immersive visualization, with its ability to present high quality interactive three-dimensional representations of environments, is the next step in this evolution. This paper explores the development of lower cost modular immersive visualization systems as a way to extend and augment our ability to plan, design and evaluate human environments. Technology now available enables spatially immersive visualization systems created using off the shelf components including high performance, relatively inexpensive, commodity computers, inexpensive commodity projectors and open source software. Flexible modular configurations utilizing polyhedral display surfaces with many identical modular components and networked visual computer clusters is one approach to such systems. Work is underway at the Texas A&M College of Architecture focused on developing and evaluating several prototypes of this new class of systems to determine their practicality and effectiveness. Underlying concepts, issues and trade-offs related to the design and development of these systems are presented. Initial applications using these systems in human environment planning, design and evaluation are discussed.

Real-Time Performance Monitoring, Adaptive Control, and Interactive Steering of Computational Grids

To support creation of nimble applications for computational grids, the authors believe one must eliminate the barrier that separates program creation from execution and post-mortem optimization. This paper outlines an approach to dynamic performance adaptation and distributed optimization in the grid environment based on a suite of performance instrumentation, analysis, and presentation tools that includes distributed performance sensors and resource policy actuators, fuzzy logic rule bases for adaptive control, and immersive visualization systems for real-time visualization and direct manipulation of software behavior.