Interactive Virtual Environment Research Articles

Face-to-face and virtual mathematics enrichment for rural schools:

In this paper the authors report on the University of Southern Queensland’s (USQ) Mathematics Rural and Regional Communities (MRRC) project. This project is an extension to the Mathematics Enrichment Program (MEP), which has been running since 2007. Since the MEP’s inception, more than 500 students, 29 schools, 15 pre-service teachers (who are involved to gain practical teaching experience) and many volunteer university lecturers and other mathematics and education professionals have been involved. The MRRC project builds on USQ’s MEP to offer content in an online or virtual format. Through an interactive virtual environment, the MRRC project connects regional high schools to USQ’s two campuses to build the capacity of the teachers and students involved. The authors describe the overall aim and structure of the MRRC program, preliminary evaluations of the program, analysis of the virtual space and future plans for the program.

A large display-based approach supporting natural user interaction in virtual reality environment

Interactive large-scale displays have significant potential for information visualization and collaborative interactions, particularly in educational and technological demonstrations. In these scenarios, usually a presenter communicates with spectators while allowing them to engage in various tasks. We propose a lightweight display interaction solution that enables multiple user interactions and facilitates natural interactions with objects in virtual environments, such as navigation and basic actions. A study involving 20 volunteers was conducted to assess the system performance and accessibility through object manipulation tasks such as selecting, moving, rotating, and zooming in a virtual environment. The results were compared to those obtained with a head-mounted display. The study found that (1) there was no significant difference in task execution time or precision and (2) the new method was more convenient, intuitive, and preferred by users.

Role of Virtual Rehabilitation in Total Knee Arthroplasty: Functional Outcomes and Cost-Effectiveness

This review article aims to explore the role of virtual rehabilitation in total knee arthroplasty in terms of functional outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a widely performed surgery for end-stage knee osteoarthritis, requiring supervised rehabilitation for rapid recovery and pain relief. Virtual rehabilitation has been evolving as an alternative to the traditional rehabilitation program in the recent years especially during the predicament of COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual rehabilitation leverages virtual reality (VR) technology to provide innovative, engaging, and measurable rehabilitation services that can complement or replace traditional therapy approaches. Virtual reality and telerehabilitation represent evolving fields in TKA rehabilitation, offering advantages over traditional therapy in terms of cost-effectiveness, improved outcomes, enhanced exercise adherence, and reduced barriers to accessing postoperative therapy. Despite the need for more research and standardized protocols, VR-based rehabilitation holds significant potential for optimizing the recovery process for patients undergoing TKA. The research indicates that VR-based rehabilitation programs for TKA patients have utilized a variety of interactive virtual environments, gaming activities, and feedback mechanisms to supplement traditional physical therapy exercises. Virtual rehabilitation for TKA encourages clinician-patient interaction beyond the hospital setting and offers the advantages of cost savings, convenience, at-home monitoring, and coordination of care, improved functional outcomes, increased exercise adherence, better balance performance, and psychological benefits like reduced stress and anxiety, all of which are geared to improve adherence and overall patient satisfaction. This review article outlines the importance of virtual rehabilitation in TKA, emphasizing cost-effectiveness and improved balance and function while maintaining enhanced adherence and exercise performance. This article also delves into the mode of administration of VR-based rehabilitation and its delivery, safety concerns, advantages and disadvantages, as well as the most common VR-based rehabilitation protocols for TKA. Further, it discusses the implications of virtual rehabilitation in the healthcare system and future directions for virtual rehabilitation in TKA. In conclusion, the evidence indicates that virtual physical therapy (PT) with remote clinical oversight is a safe, effective, and more cost-effective alternative to traditional in-person PT for patients undergoing TKA. Keywords: Virtual rehabilitation, virtual physical therapy, telehealth, telerehabilitation, total knee arthroplasty.

Gamifying cell culture training: The ‘Seru-Otchi’ experience for undergraduates

Working in a stem cell laboratory necessitates a thorough understanding of complex cell culture protocols, the operation of sensitive scientific equipment, adherence to safety standards, and general laboratory etiquette. For novice student researchers, acquiring the necessary specialized knowledge before their initial laboratory experience can be a formidable task. Similarly, for experienced laboratory personnel, efficiently and uniformly training new trainees to a rigorous standard presents a significant challenge. In response to these issues, we have developed an educational and interactive virtual cell culture environment. This interactive virtual lab aims to equip students with foundational knowledge in maintaining cortical brain organoids and to instill an understanding of pertinent safety procedures and laboratory etiquette. The gamification of this training process seeks to provide laboratory supervisors in highly specialized fields with an effective tool to integrate students into their work environments more rapidly and safely.

On the Design and Implementation of a Mixed-Platform Collaborative Virtual RAS Planner

Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS) represents an important step forward in the field of minimally invasive surgery. However, the learning curve of RAS is steep, and a systematic planning of surgical robot setups should be performed to leverage the features of RAS. For this reason, in this paper we show the design and implementation of a mixed-platform collaborative system, creating an interactive virtual shared environment that simulates RAS during the surgery planning phase. The proposed system allows one or more experts to plan together the different phases of an RAS-based surgical procedure, while integrating different levels of immersion to enhance computer-assisted training. We have tested our system with a total of four domain experts. Our results show that experts found the system excellent in terms of usability and useful to prepare and discuss surgical planning with RAS.

Overview of Virtual Reality, Applications and Impact on Various Industries

In today's time, virtual reality is growing and developing very rapidly. This abstract will give us an overview of virtual reality. In the future, virtual reality will give us advantages in many areas such as hardware, software, applications, and societal impacts etc. In the context of hardware, we hope for advancements towards more compact designs, high-resolution virtual reality headsets with better user-friendly design and increased capability. Progress in haptic feedback systems and eye-tracking technology will provide users with a more immersive and natural experience. On the side of software, the future promises advanced graphics in virtual reality, realistic physics models, and better artificial intelligence-driven content creation. This will boost creativity among the blurred lines between quickly engaging and interactive virtual environments, blurring the boundaries between the physical world and virtual worlds. The growth of applications for Virtual Reality is certain across industries like education, healthcare, entertainment, and business. Virtual classrooms and virtual medical Involvements are Transforming education and healthcare respectively. Virtual Reality is also improving tourism experiences and remote workplaces. Offering solutions for bridging the gap between the virtual and real worlds, virtual reality presents challenges and opportunities to improve human experiences. In addition, there is a possibility of virtual reality having a deep social impact, Impacting the way we connect, learn, work, and entertain ourselves. Concerns about privacy may also arise with the rise of Virtual Reality, as our lives become more integrated, making it necessary to be thoughtful about control and security measures for daily life. Keywords Virtual Reality, applications, impact, industries, healthcare, education, entertainment, training, simulation, architecture, gaming, tourism, real estate, psychological therapy, rehabilitation, communication, social interaction, transportation, automotive, manufacturing, marketing, productivity, innovation, experiential learning, empathy, accessibility, human-computer interaction, future trends.

Effects of virtual agents on interaction efficiency and environmental immersion in MR environments

BackgroundPhysical entity interactions in mixed reality (MR) environments aim to harness human capabilities in manipulating physical objects, thereby enhancing virtual environment (VEs) functionality. In MR, a common strategy is to use virtual agents as substitutes for physical entities, balancing interaction efficiency with environmental immersion. However, the impact of virtual agent size and form on interaction performance remains unclear. MethodsTwo experiments were conducted to explore how virtual agent size and form affect interaction performance, immersion, and preference in MR environments. The first experiment assessed five virtual agent sizes (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, and 125% of physical size). The second experiment tested four types of frames (no frame, consistent frame, half frame, and surrounding frame) across all agent sizes. Participants, utilizing a head-mounted display, performed tasks involving moving cups, typing words, and using a mouse. They completed questionnaires assessing aspects such as the virtual environment effects, interaction effects, collision concerns, and preferences. ResultsResults from the first experiment revealed that agents matching physical object size produced the best overall performance. The second experiment demonstrated that consistent framing notably enhances interaction accuracy and speed but reduces immersion. To balance efficiency and immersion, frameless agents matching physical object sizes were deemed optimal. ConclusionsVirtual agents matching physical entity sizes enhance user experience and interaction performance. Conversely, familiar frames from 2D interfaces detrimentally affect interaction and immersion in virtual spaces. This study provides valuable insights for the future development of MR systems.

Campus Culture Construction of Colleges and Universities Based on Virtual Reality Technology

This paper presents a novel approach to campus culture construction in colleges and universities utilizing virtual reality (VR) technology enhanced by Cartesian point Probabilistic LSTM (CPP-LSTM). The study aims to enhance campus culture by creating immersive virtual environments that promote engagement, collaboration, and learning among students and faculty members. Through simulated experiments and empirical validations, the efficacy of the CPP-LSTM-enhanced VR technology is evaluated in creating realistic and interactive virtual campus environments. Results demonstrate significant improvements in user engagement and satisfaction compared to traditional methods. For instance, users interacting with the CPP-LSTM-enhanced VR platform reported a 30% increase in perceived sense of belonging and a 25% improvement in overall satisfaction ratings. Additionally, the CPP-LSTM model enables the generation of personalized virtual experiences based on user preferences and feedback, leading to more immersive and impactful campus culture construction. These findings underscore the potential of VR technology with CPP-LSTM in revolutionizing campus culture construction and fostering a vibrant and inclusive campus community.

Human-computer interaction in virtual reality environments for educational and business purposes

This paper examines the integration of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in Virtual Reality (VR) environments, with a focus on its application in educational and business domains. It explores the transformative potential of VR in enhancing user interface design, optimizing user experience, and integrating advanced technologies like natural language processing and gesture recognition. The research highlights VR's efficacy in improving learning outcomes and operational efficiencies, demonstrating significant advancements in immersive and intuitive interaction within virtual settings. The study underscores the critical role of user-centered design in VR systems and the impact of integrating natural language processing and gesture recognition technologies in creating more natural and intuitive user interactions. Through comprehensive analysis and case studies, the paper presents the latest developments in VR technology and its application, offering insights into the future of immersive digital environments in education and business sectors.

Height-renderable morphable tactile display enabled by programmable modulation of local stiffness in photothermally active polymer

Reconfigurable tactile displays are being used to provide refreshable Braille information; however, the delivered information is currently limited to an alternative of Braille because of difficulties in controlling the deformation height. Herein, we present a photothermally activated polymer-bilayer-based morphable tactile display that can programmably generate tangible three-dimensional topologies with varying textures on a thin film surface. The morphable tactile display was composed of a heterogeneous polymer structure that integrated a stiffness-tunable polymer into a light-absorbing elastomer, near-infra-red light-emitting diode (NIR-LED) array, and small pneumatic chamber. Topological expression was enabled by producing localized out-of-plane deformation that was reversible, height-adjustable, and latchable in response to light-triggered stiffness modulation at each target area under switching of stationary pneumatic pressure. Notably, the tactile display could express a spatial softness map of the latched topology upon re-exposing the target areas to modulated light from the NIR-LED array. We expect the developed tactile display to open a pathway for generating high-dimensional tactile information on electronic devices and enable realistic interaction in augmented and virtual environments.

Development of Machine Tool Disassembly and Assembly Training and Digital Twin Model Building System based on Virtual Simulation

In response to the issues of poor safety and insufficient training equipment in traditional machine tool assembly and disassembly training, this paper proposes a machine tool assembly and disassembly training system based on virtual simulation. The system utilizes Unity 3D to construct an interactive virtual training environment, achieving highly simulated simulations and teaching of the machine tool assembly and disassembly process. Additionally, the system is capable of establishing communication with actual machine tools, achieving bidirectional mapping between digital and physical spaces, allowing learners to observe the dynamic responses of machine tool models through the virtual environment. This virtual-real interaction mechanism enriches the application scenarios of the system, introducing digital twin technology into the virtual simulation of machine tool assembly and disassembly training. This paper also provides a detailed introduction to the design and implementation of core technologies such as the system's overall architecture, scene modeling, and virtual-real interaction, offering significant support for intelligent teaching in machine tool assembly and disassembly.

Are we ready for education in Metaverse? PLS-SEM analysis

The objective of this study is to investigate the adoption of met-averse education in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, by employing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as the foundational theoretical framework. Metaverse education, utilizing immersive and interactive virtual environments for educational objectives, is an innovative and auspicious methodology in the contemporary digital realm. Data collection was conducted via judgmental sampling. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for the analysis. The results suggest a significant and positive impact of Consumer Intention (CI) on the practical use (AU) of the met-averse in the field of education. Furthermore, the factors of Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC), Subjective Norm (SN), and Perceived Value strongly influenced Consumer Intention (CI) in a positive manner. Moreover, Emotional Value (EV) and Social Value (SV) had a substantial impact on the Perceived Value (PV) of using the metaverse in educational contexts. Nevertheless, the lack of statistical significance in the relationship between Attitude towards Behavior (ATB) and Consumer Intention (CI) is recognized. This research not only addresses a significant gap in the theory of IS literature but also offers valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and developers. If you really understand the things that make people open to metaverse education, you can make big changes to plans and actions that are used to successfully add metaverse education to the regular school setting, especially in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

An Era in Jinling: Game Interactive Heritage Digital Art Exhibition

Summary The ‘An Era in Jinling’ Heritage Digital Art Exhibition, which focuses on the interactive virtual reality game environment created by the audience's experience, is an immersive digital art exhibition composed of the audience, the hardware system of the digital exhibition environment and the virtual digital environment presented. As a game-interactive immersive digital art exhibition in a heritage exhibition, it invites the audience to take a personal digital role in the exhibition and use the game-interactive method to enjoy an immersive digital exhibition. This paper aims to engage audiences through the ‘audience-centric’ exhibition of digital art, allowing them to use their senses to enjoy immersive exhibitions of digital art. This paper also demonstrates how digital art exhibitions of history can provide new insights to the general public in the preservation and exploration of cultural heritage.

Motion Prediction With Gaussian Processes for Safe Human–Robot Interaction in Virtual Environments

Motion Prediction With Gaussian Processes for Safe Human–Robot Interaction in Virtual Environments

Horizontal Plane Haptic Redirection: Realizing Haptic Feedback for the Virtual Inclined Plane in VR.

Some interactions in virtual environments need to be operated on inclined planes. If a real inclined plane can be found in the real environment that corresponds exactly to the angle of the virtual inclined plane to provide haptic feedback, the user's immersion can be enhanced. However, it is not easy to find such a real inclined plane in the real environment. We proposed a horizontal plane haptic redirection scheme, where users interacting with virtual inclined planes in virtual environments can obtain haptic feelings by using real horizontal planes that are easily available in the real world for redirection mapping. We also designed an integrated solution to locate the real horizontal plane and for haptic redirection based on the Vive Pro headset. Then we measured the angle and size thresholds for horizontal plane haptic redirection as 20° and 88%, respectively, through a user study. Through experiments, we also found that when the degree of redirection exceeded the threshold, the user's operation efficiency would be significantly reduced. In addition, we compared the horizontal plane haptic redirection scheme with the scheme without redirection and the scheme without haptic feedback to demonstrate the validity and necessity of the redirection scheme proposed in this paper.

Development and Evaluation of Refreshable Braille Display and Active Touch-Reading System for Digital Reading of the Visually Impaired.

The traditional way of reading through Braille books is constraining the reading experience of blind or visually impaired (BVI) in the digital age. In order to improve the reading convenience of BVI, this paper proposes a low-cost and refreshable Braille display device, and solves the problems of high energy consumption and low latching force existing in existing devices. Further, the Braille display device was combined with the 3D Systems Touch device to develop an active Braille touch-reading system for digital reading of BVI with the help of the CHAI3D virtual environment. Firstly, according to the actual needs of BVI to touch and read the Braille dots, this paper utilizes the beam structure to provide a full latching function for the raised Braille dot without energy consumption. Through theoretical derivation and finite element analysis, the performance of the Braille dot actuator is optimized to provide sufficient feedback force and latching force for finger's touch-reading. Then, this paper designs a virtual Braille interactive environment based on the CHAI3D, and combines the sense of touch with audio to effectively improve the recognition accuracy and reading efficiency of BVI for Braille through the multi-modal presentation of Braille information. The performance test results of the device show that the average lifting force of the Braille dot actuator is 101.67 mN, the latching force is over 5 N, and the average refresh frequency is 17.1 Hz, which meets the touch-reading needs of BVI. User experiments show that the average accuracy rate of BVI subjects in identifying digitized Braille is 95.5%, and subjects have a high subjective evaluation of the system.

A Bibliometric Analysis: Metaverse in Education Concept

During the last decade technological transformation prospered, and digital environments such as Metaverse started to come to life. Metaverse is a hypothesis of the next generation of the Internet, which consists of an online 3D virtual environment and limited physical interaction. Due to the growth of Metaverse technology in various fields and the importance of using it in education, it is being observed that published research related to this topic is also growing. Therefore, the purpose is this study is to review and identify the application areas of this emerging technology for the education field by providing a bibliometric analysis of the literature related to Metaverse. This research contributes to literature as it addresses the status, gaps, and the direction for future research. In the bibliometric analysis, an electronic search was done via a scientific database named Dimensions by combining topic-related keywords for ‘metaverse’ and ‘education’ within the time frame of 2004 and 2022. The data gathered by a data extraction table from 5,048 articles retrieved and analysis run by VOSviewer data visualization tool. Of 5,048 articles found through the initial search, most of the studies (48.02%) were published in 2022, and Singapore, Japan, China, and UK are the main countries for the studies and citations appearing dominantly. The main three keywords for ‘metaverse’ and ‘education’ articles include: virtual worlds, video and metaverse platforms. The use of metaverse in education has been expanding rapidly in literature during recent years. Yet this study reveals that research is still limited to the main four countries, and studied subtopics are very primitive and vague. Available citations show weak link strength meaning the depth of the studies in the literature is not satisfactory, yet, which is because the metaverse itself is not enough without the supporting technologies. Educators and scientific researchers could rethink what types of technologies belong to the metaverse and how it has the potential to influence the education sector. Policymakers and educators could refer to this study for metaverse learning environment expansion of their future policy and executions.

Breaking Boundaries

Although the pandemic increased the adoption of non-education platforms for teaching, it brought challenges to online higher education. These challenges encompass fatigue from excessive use of video conferencing applications, frustration experienced by instructors when students keep their cameras off during online classes, low student engagement, and notable silence in response to questions or concerns. As digital education and online interaction continue to evolve, the concept of the metaverse has emerged as a potential solution to enhance engagement and collaboration within virtual spaces (Mistretta, 2022). The metaverse, as defined by the Acceleration Studies Foundation, represents the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physical-persisted virtual space (Kye et al., 2021). It constitutes an interactive, three-dimensional virtual environment where individuals can interact with one another and digital entities, mirroring real-life interactions. The metaverse encompasses virtual worlds, online games, social networks, augmented and virtual reality experiences, and more. It blurs the line between the physical and digital realms, allowing for seamless and integrated experiences. Built upon the maturity of technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), big data, and blockchain, represents the future of education (Wu & Gao, 2022, cited in George, E. 2023). Hybrid and flexible environments facilitate the integration of these technologies, overcoming physical limitations and enabling students to immerse themselves in a completely virtual environment. Within this environment, students can engage in creative activities that foster learning, critical thinking, collaborative work, socialization, and positively impact student motivation (Almaguer et al., 2021; Burnett et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2022). Virbela is a virtual reality platform that recreates real-world settings, dynamics, and human interactions in virtual environments. Unlike video conferencing, digital collaboration tools, and online forums, Virbela provides the ability to replicate physical offices, events, or learning spaces while maintaining a sense of community and culture (Virbela, 2023). Tec Virtual Campus is a Tecnologico de Monterrey virtual world created using Virbela. Accessible through a desktop application, this platform offers students a digital space where they can access using customizable avatars and enjoy freedom of movement as if they were on the physical campus (Villanueva, A. 2022). This environment enables the presentation of projects, complete class sessions, participation in forums, organization of educational events, and various other activities, all within an interactive 100% virtual space that utilizes three-dimensional animations and voice-enabled avatars. In this context, we will provide examples of two educational activities implemented within the Virtual Campus for high-enrollment online courses encompassing over 100 students from diverse regions in Mexico. These courses span distinct disciplines: Engineering and Sciences, and Social Sciences and Government. These examples aim to demonstrate that regardless of the subject being studied or course characteristics, this immersive resource can be utilized to add value and innovation to virtual classrooms.

Queues, crowds, and angry mobs: Face identification under distraction in a virtual airport.

In visual environments, selective attention must be employed to focus on task-relevant stimuli. A key question here concerns the extent to which other stimuli within the visual field influence target processing. In this study, we ask whether face identity matching is subject to similar effects from irrelevant stimuli in the visual field, specifically task-irrelevant people. Although most previous studies rely on highly controlled face and body stimuli presented in isolation, here we use a more realistic environment. Participants take the role of passport officers and must match a person's face to their photo-ID, while other people appear in the background, waiting to be processed. Presenting an interactive virtual environment on screen (Experiments 1 and 2) or in immersive VR (Experiment 3), we generally found no evidence for distraction from background people on face-matching accuracy. However, when immersed in VR, an angry crowd in the background delayed matching speed while not affecting accuracy. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results and their potential importance in practical settings.

Immersive, interactive virtual learning environments increase accessibility in soil science

AbstractAs the use of online education increases, technologies to improve the quality of learning have been improving alongside it. One method of information dissemination is virtual learning environments (VLE), in which educators can tailor digital lessons according to their subject and the needs of their students. For soil science, and field‐based sciences in general, this technology holds great potential in addressing issues of accessibility. Field labs can be challenging due to monetary, time, and physical constraints; however, the use of VLE can allow for students to indefinitely access field settings in a safe and repeatable way with no additional cost. We have built the framework for and created an immersive soil science–based VLE in the Laramie Range Mountains, examining terrain and soils along six sites on a catena. When this VLE was used in a class of 26 upper level morphology and classification students as a supplemental field trip, scores before and after use were comparable; however, students reported an increase in engagement and interest in the VLE itself, as well a general increase in understanding of relationships between landscape processes and soil formation. Using this technology structure in distance learning enhances our ability to deliver high‐quality, immersive, accessible content as natural science education progresses.