Interactive Virtual Reality Technology Research Articles

Virtual Reality Planning of Microvascular Decompression in Trigeminal Neuralgia: Technique and Clinical Outcome.

A neurovascular conflict (NVC) is considered the cause of trigeminal neuralgia (TN) in 75% of cases, and if so, a microvascular decompression (MVD) can lead to significant pain relief. A reliable preoperative detection of NVC is essential for clinical decision-making and surgical planning, making detailed neuroradiologic imaging an important component. We present our experiences and clinical outcomes with preoperative planning of the MVD procedure in a virtual reality (VR) environment, based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and magnetic resonance venography (MRV) sequences. We analyzed the data of 30 consecutive MVDs in patients treated for TN, in a retrospective single-surgeon (R.A. Kockro) study. Out of the 30 cases, 26 were included. Preoperatively, MRA/MRV and MRI series were fused and three dimensionally reconstructed in a VR environment. All critical structures such as the trigeminal nerve as well as the arteries and veins of the cerebellopontine angle, the brainstem, the neighboring cranial nerves, and the transverse and sigmoid sinus were segmented. The NVC was visualized and a simulation of a retrosigmoid approach, with varying trajectories, to the NVC was performed. The intraoperative findings were then compared with the data of the simulation. The clinical outcome was assessed by a detailed review of medical reports, and follow-up-interviews were conducted in all available patients (20/26). The VR planning was well integrated into the clinical workflow, and imaging processing time was 30 to 40 minutes. There was a sole arterial conflict in 13 patients, a venous conflict in 4 patients, and a combined arteriovenous conflict in 9 patients. The preoperative simulations provided a precise visualization of the anatomical relationships of the offending vessels and the trigeminal nerves as well as the surrounding structures. For each case, the approach along the most suitable surgical corridor was simulated and the exact steps of the decompression were planned. The NVC and the anatomy of the cerebellopontine angle as seen intraoperatively matched with the preoperative simulations in all cases and the MVC could be performed as planned. At follow-up, 92.3% (24/26) of patients were pain free and all the patients who completed the questionnaire would undergo the surgery again (20/20). The surgical complication rate was zero. Current imaging technology allows detailed preoperative visualization of the pathoanatomical spatial relationships in cases of TN. 3D interactive VR technology allows establishing a clear dissection and decompression strategy, resulting in safe vascular microsurgery and excellent clinical results.

Retracted: Construction of Holographic Immersion Chamber Based on Multisource Information Fusion and Interactive Virtual Reality Technology

Retracted: Construction of Holographic Immersion Chamber Based on Multisource Information Fusion and Interactive Virtual Reality Technology

How does interactive virtual reality enhance learning outcomes via emotional experiences? A structural equation modeling approach.

Interest in interactive virtual reality (IVR) is increasing due to its potential for embodied learning and group-led teaching. However, few studies have investigated the internal mechanism by which IVR technology features and learning experiences affect learning outcomes in terms of psychological and emotional value. Based on media technology models and the control value theory of achievement emotions (CVTAE), this study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the correlations among the internal elements of IVR technology features, learning experiences, and learning outcomes. It also emphasizes the role played by emotional experience in this context. The sample referenced by this study consisted of 480 college students (193 males) who were simultaneously engaged in guided inquiry and learning in an IVR-based COVID-19 pandemic science museum in groups of 10. The findings suggest that presence and perceived enjoyment have a key mediating effect on the relationship between virtual reality (VR) features and perceived learning outcomes in an IVR-based learning simulation. In addition, the results indicate that presence is more strongly correlated with perceived learning effects, while enjoyment is more strongly correlated with learning satisfaction. These findings provide intellectual support and theoretical backing for VR-based instructional design and environmental development. Moreover, this study has practical value with regard to the future large-scale application of IVR to experiential teaching, group-led teaching, and the promotion of the digital transformation and intelligence upgrading in education.

Construction of Interactive Virtual Reality Simulation Digital Media System Based on Cross-Media Resources.

The combination of video and music is the most typical combination form in interactive multimedia works, which focuses on the audio-visual presentation characteristics of interactive art. Since both creative practice and theoretical research are still in the development stage, we focus on the creation of audio-visual integration in interactive multimedia works. Theoretical achievements are still very rare, and the guidance of creation theory plays an important role in the improvement of the aesthetic level of works. Therefore, for the development of interactive multimedia works creation, creating a new audio-visual relationship research path has important theoretical value and application value. It also has a certain historical significance for promoting the maturity of this art form. Through interactive virtual reality technology, this paper conducts an in-depth discussion on the simulation of digital media system across media resources. It is more suitable for the user's preference than the PC machine side. From technical means to artistic aesthetic characteristics and practical application, the application field and industry influence of digital media art carried by virtual reality are expounded, and the problems and solutions faced at this stage are proposed. By analyzing the application of virtual reality aesthetics in interaction design, the relationship between the visual level and the experience level of virtual reality aesthetics is discussed. Starting from the basic concepts of virtual reality aesthetics and interaction design, this paper analyzes the virtual reality space architecture and aesthetic dimension of interaction design in the era of artificial intelligence, and the value of virtual reality aesthetics in interaction design. Most interactive multimedia works rely on the open programming environment and have highly open creation tools to realize cross-media creation. The interactive integration of multimedia art and visual communication is the trend in design development. It follows the law of formal beauty and uses visual language to guide the content. Visual communication adapts to the needs of multiplatform media communication, adds multimedia art elements, and promotes the integration of scientific and technological progress and artistic development.

Construction of Holographic Immersion Chamber Based on Multisource Information Fusion and Interactive Virtual Reality Technology

Nowadays, many visual artists actively respond to the drastic changes taking place in today’s society, build a communication bridge between real places and virtual places, and use holographic image technology to organically integrate them with each other. We are increasingly shuttling through the network of unbounded space. These spaces have no fixed geographical location. With the help of modern science and technology, they often fall into the field of vision of the viewer. With the development of the times, virtual reality technology is a computer simulation system that can create and experience the virtual world. It mainly uses computers to generate a simulated environment. It is a multisource information fusion interactive virtual reality technology to help users immerse themselves in the virtual environment. This paper studies the holographic immersion chamber based on multisource information fusion interactive virtual reality technology. The approximation index of the transformation matrix calculated by the registration algorithm based on SIFT+MSA is 1.7073, which is less than 4.0017 obtained by SIFT matching algorithm. It can be seen that the error of CCD image registration parameters calculated by this algorithm is smaller. In the process of the development of multisource information fusion interactive virtual reality technology, the technical feature of virtual reality is gradually integrated into the user and application object, becoming more closely connected and finally causing the user of the technology the feeling of “immersion” in the use experience.

Restorative effect of interactive virtual reality natural environment experience on psychophysiological responses

In this study, the restorative effect of a natural environment experience simulated with interactive virtual reality technology on the psychophysiological response was investigated. Three simulated virtual reality stimuli were selected: a green-dominated area, green and water combined area, and water-dominated area. Free movement was permitted to provide interaction in virtual reality, and an appropriate sound environment was provided in real time to each space through 3-D sound technology. Fifty subjects experiencing the normal levels of stress or depression participated in this study. The aim was to locate the most restorative point in the natural environment, and the physical properties at each point were quantified. In addition, to collect psychological responses, subjects were asked to respond to a restoration questionnaire based on the attention restoration and stress reduction theory and a questionnaire on soundscape and landscape perception. Concurrently, various physiological responses, such as heart rate, electroencephalogram, and eye tracking, were measured. Finally, the relationship between physical characteristics and psychophysiological responses was investigated. Based on this, guidelines were presented on how to create a virtual reality natural environment for stress recovery.

Evaluating the use of interactive virtual reality technology with older adults living in residential aged care

Background and objectivesAs technologies gain traction within the aged care community, better understanding their impact becomes vital. This paper reports on a study that explored the deployment of virtual reality (VR) as a tool to engage older adults in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACF). The paper has two aims: 1) to identify the benefits and challenges associated with using VR with residents in aged care settings, and 2) to gather the views of older adult residents in RACF about the potential uses of VR in aged care. Research design and methodsFive RACF residents and five RACF staff members took part in an intensive two-week evaluation of a VR system. Qualitative data was collected from multiple interviews and via researcher notes and video recordings made during the VR sessions. ResultsResults highlight the usability issues that impacted on the aged care residents' ability to use interactive VR technology and the potential negative impact head mounted displays can have on those living with dementia; the role that VR can play in engaging residents who might otherwise self-isolate, and how this can extend to increased engagement with family and friends. Discussion and implicationsWe discuss the design challenges that will need to be met in order to ensure that interactive VR technology can be used by residents living in aged care, and the potential for VR to be used as a tool to improve the quality of life of some older residents, particularly those for whom traditional social activities do not appeal.

Safety knowledge transfer through mobile virtual reality: A study of aviation life preserver donning

Aviation safety knowledge is a key factor in determining how passengers will respond in an emergency, but the effectiveness of the tools (preflight safety briefing, safety briefing card) used by airlines to educate passengers about safety has been shown to be lacking. This paper explores how one of these tools could be made interactive in order to increase its effectiveness. In particular, we use Virtual Reality (VR) techniques, adapting them to the constraints imposed by on-board aircraft use, such as usage on non-immersive, small displays. As a practical application, the paper examines aviation life preserver donning, which the literature has shown to be particularly difficult for passengers. To evaluate the proposed mobile VR tool, we contrasted it with the traditional safety briefing card in a between-groups study with 68 participants, age 20–24, focusing on different aspects of effectiveness. The results of the study show that the participants who used the mobile VR tool were able to transfer the presented safety knowledge to the real world, and don an aviation life preserver significantly faster and with fewer errors than participants who used the traditional briefing card. Moreover, these objective results were consistent with subjective ratings by participants; the mobile VR tool was perceived as significantly more engaging, simpler, and more effective than the traditional briefing card. Finally, participants who used the mobile VR tool attained a higher level of self-efficacy. The generalizability of these results would benefit with additional work aimed at an older age cohort that would ostensibly be less familiar with interactive VR technology.

Exploring virtual reality technology and the Oculus Rift for the examination of digital pathology slides

Background: Digital slides obtained from whole slide imaging (WSI) platforms are typically viewed in two dimensions using desktop personal computer monitors or more recently on mobile devices. To the best of our knowledge, we are not aware of any studies viewing digital pathology slides in a virtual reality (VR) environment. VR technology enables users to be artificially immersed in and interact with a computer-simulated world. Oculus Rift is among the world’s first consumer-targeted VR headsets, intended primarily for enhanced gaming. Our aim was to explore the use of the Oculus Rift for examining digital pathology slides in a VR environment. Methods: An Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 (DK2) was connected to a 64-bit computer running Virtual Desktop software. Glass slides from twenty randomly selected lymph node cases (ten with benign and ten malignant diagnoses) were digitized using a WSI scanner. Three pathologists reviewed these digital slides on a 27-inch 5K display and with the Oculus Rift after a 2-week washout period. Recorded endpoints included concordance of final diagnoses and time required to examine slides. The pathologists also rated their ease of navigation, image quality, and diagnostic confidence for both modalities. Results: There was 90% diagnostic concordance when reviewing WSI using a 5K display and Oculus Rift. The time required to examine digital pathology slides on the 5K display averaged 39 s (range 10–120 s), compared to 62 s with the Oculus Rift (range 15–270 s). All pathologists confirmed that digital pathology slides were easily viewable in a VR environment. The ratings for image quality and diagnostic confidence were higher when using the 5K display. Conclusion: Using the Oculus Rift DK2 to view and navigate pathology whole slide images in a virtual environment is feasible for diagnostic purposes. However, image resolution using the Oculus Rift device was limited. Interactive VR technologies such as the Oculus Rift are novel tools that may be of use in digital pathology.

Easy-to-use virtual brick manipulation techniques using hand gestures

Nowadays, LEGO may be regarded as the best toys that ever existed. It not only appeals to people of all ages, but also encourages creativity and innovation. The popularity of LEGO entails the introduction of a range of computer applications that simulate this toy. However, assembling by mouse and keyboard is not more interesting than playing a real LEGO toy. Recently, with the development of interactive virtual reality technology, many novel acquisition devices like Leap Motion and Kinect have been introduced which allow the user to control the device without touching the keyboard, the mouse, or the screen. In this paper, we present a VR application that simulates a real LEGO toy, and players can interact with this application via Leap Motion device. In other words, the player can use both hands to control the in-game objects including LEGO bricks, game camera, and even GUI. Also, we propose a set of gestures which enable the user to perform and memorize easily.

How information guides movement: Intercepting curved free kicks in soccer

Previous studies have shown that balls subjected to spin induce large errors in perceptual judgments (Craig, Berton, Rao, Fernandez, & Bootsma, 2006; Craig et al., 2009) due to the additional accelerative force that causes the ball’s flight path to deviate from a standard parabolic trajectory. A recent review however, has suggested that the findings from such experiments may be imprecise due to the decoupling of perception and action and the reliance on the ventral system (van der Kamp, Rivas, van Doorn, & Savelsbergh, 2008). The aim of this study was to present the same curved free kick trajectory simulations from the perception only studies (Craig et al., 2006, 2009) but this time allow participants to move to intercept the ball. By using immersive, interactive virtual reality technology participants were asked to control the movement of a virtual effector presented in a virtual soccer stadium so that it would make contact with a virtual soccer ball as it crossed the goal-line. As in the perception only studies the direction of spin had a significant effect on the participants’ responses with significantly fewer balls being intercepted in the spin conditions when compared to no-spin conditions. A significantly higher percentage of movement reversals for the spin conditions served to highlight the link between information specifying ball heading direction and subsequent movement. The coherence of the findings for both the perception and perception/action study are discussed in light of the dual systems model for visual processing.

Judging the ‘passability’ of dynamic gaps in a virtual rugby environment

Affordances have recently been proposed as a guiding principle in perception–action research in sport (Fajen, Riley, & Turvey, 2009). In the present study, perception of the ’passability’ affordance of a gap between two approaching defenders in rugby is explored. A simplified rugby gap closure scenario was created using immersive, interactive virtual reality technology where 14 novice participants (attacker) judged the passability of the gap between two virtual defenders via a perceptual judgment (button press) task. The scenario was modeled according to tau theory (Lee, 1976) and a psychophysical function was fitted to the response data. Results revealed that a tau-based informational quantity could account for 82% of the variance in the data. Findings suggest that the passability affordance in this case, is defined by this variable and participants were able to use it in order to inform prospective judgments as to passability. These findings contribute to our understanding of affordances and how they may be defined in this particular sporting scenario; however, some limitations regarding methodology, such as decoupling perception and action are also acknowledged.

과학적 탐구학습을 지원하는 가상현실 시스템 개발에 관한 연구

상호작용적인 가상현실 기술은 실제 환경의 제약을 극복할 수 있으며 사용자에게 흥미와 적극적인 참여를 유도하여 과학적 탐구학습에도 적극 활용되고 있다. 그러나 기존 연구에서는 주로 특정 교안에 대한 응용 프로그램의 개발에 중점을 두고 있어서 다른 교안을 위한 탐구학습가상환경 개발에 쉽게 활용하기 어려웠다. 이에 본 연구에서는 과학적 탐구학습 가상환경의 개발을 도와주는 통합적인 가상현실 시스템 SASILE (System for Augmenting Scientific Inquiry Learning Environments)을 개발하였다. 본 논문에서는 먼저 가상현실을 활용한 과학적 탐구학습 관련 연구를 살펴보고, 제안하는 시스템의 구조와 구현에 대해서 설명한다. 그리고 이 시스템을 이용하여 가상현실 모양성에서 한옥에 나타난 대류현상에 대한 과학적 탐구학습 환경 개발 사례와 가상환경 화성 암석의 성분을 측정하여 운석이 떨어진 곳을 찾는 화성 탐사 개발사례를 설명한다. 마지막으로 이 시스템의 향후 연구 방향에 대해 논한다. The interactive virtual reality technology has used in scientific inquiry learning since it can overcome the restriction of real world and it draws user's interest and foster active participation. However, prior works are mostly designed for a specific inquiry learning lesson and it is quite difficult to use them for constructing other inquiry learning environments. Hence, we developed the integrated virtual reality system, SASILE (System for Augmenting Scientific Inquiry Learning Environments), that helps ease the development of the scientific inquiry learning environment. In this paper, we first describe the related works on supporting VR scientific inquiry learning systems, followed by the SASILE system architecture and implementation. Then, we illustrate the use of this system to develop a Virtual Moyangsung application for teaching a scientific structure of Korean traditional house by exploring and observing the convection currents as well as a Mars Rover application for estimating the asteroid impacts on Mars by measuring rock properties. Finally, we will discuss the future research directions for this system.