3D Virtual World Research Articles

Virtual field teaching has evolved: benefits of a 3D gaming environment

Conceived as a means of fostering practical fieldwork skills for distance learning students at the Open University, Virtual Skiddaw represents a new breed of virtual field trip. Based in a 3D virtual world modelled on real topographic and geological data, the application offers multi‐user functionality, opportunities for detailed observation and a wealth of interactive features. Far from replacing physical field courses, it is intended to complement, enhance, extend and provoke reflection on existing field teaching. However, such virtual field trips could prove ideal for introducing fieldwork, either at undergraduate level or in schools, and across a range of subject areas.

The Process of Identity Building In Second Life

Second Life is a 3D virtual world that had considerable echo in the world particularly among large companies that consider it as a pioneer for marketing research. The enigma of resident identity in Second Life must be raised in order to propose a research framework that can offer some answers to questions about the relationship between real and virtual, or even between real identity and virtual identity.This study explores the identity construction in the persistent world Second Life. The results of this study tend to define the process of building a virtual identity in Second Life and the factors associated with it. This research is supported on a qualitative study of 40 interviews conducted in immersion in the virtual world Second Life.

Examining Second Life’s Virtual Learning Platform to Develop English Language Skills Competency: Opportunities and Challenges

Within the related language teaching and learning, various terms have been assigned to Virtual Worlds and similar environments. One of these terms is Second Life. Learning English for EFL learners have been always challenging task. Second Life is a phenomenon raising interest many educators around the world, with many educational and institutions experimenting and offering classes in Second Life for enhancing their students language skills due to its immersive and interactive environment. Its interactive interfaces provide students with realistic experiences and simulated everyday situation in 3D virtual worlds for more authentic and physical practice, students’ awareness of the target culture, knowledge construction and learning. On the other hand, its drawbacks can be categorized as financial, technical and user-related once.This paper offers a broad vision of potential benefits and challenges associated with using Second Life as educational tool develop students’ language learning. It provides a definition of Second Life as well as demonstrates the affordances that Second Life offers for language learning.

Applying augmented reality for experiential learning: a case study of E-Commerce Learning

The great impacts of advancing technology, such as 3D virtual worlds, create new learning opportunities for learners. Educators and researchers have been exploring how to apply 3D virtual technology to improve the virtual learning process and authentic activities. Augmented reality (AR) technology offers the opportunity for learners to interact in both the virtual and real world significantly. Augmented reality can be an attractive technology that allows learners to realize that virtual and real objects coexist at the same time. Therefore, AR technology allows educators to design courses utilizing simulation, visualization, and interaction with the virtual objects and real environments. For Dewey (1916), learning should be real and applicable to daily living. This study builds an e-commerce learning system based upon Kolb’s experiential learning theory.

An examination of 3D virtual worlds, design issues, and motivational theory

The purpose of this study is to assess the motivational qualities of specific design elements in a three-dimensional (3D) virtual winter sports learning environment comprised of an Information House, Practice Area, and Exercise Area by considering two motivational models. The study employed causal comparative research methods. Participants included 150 fifth, sixth, and seventh grade middle school students. A motivation survey developed by the researchers served as the data collection tool; data were analyzed with descriptive and predictive methods. Data analysis revealed that the animations in the Practice Area of the 3D virtual environment drew the most attention when compared to the other design elements. Elements in the Exercise Area encouraged students to conduct more research, and elements in the Information House were efficient at increasing students' satisfaction. In addition, design elements such as animations, images, display boards, and videos helped students to learn individually and provided opportunities to practice within a 3D virtual environment.

Using virtual worlds in rural and regional educational institutions

This paper presents four case studies from two regional and two metropolitan Australian universities, showcasing how 3D virtual world platforms have been used to connect, engage and motivate students in both co-located and non-co-located contexts. The case studies provide practical examples of how virtual worlds and associated applications have been operationalised in real teaching and learning contexts involving a range of different disciplines. For rural educators looking for innovative ways to enrich the student learning experience, the case studies offer first hand insights into the potential and the problems of using virtual worlds for educational purposes.

WorldBrush

We present a novel approach for the interactive synthesis and editing of virtual worlds. Our method is inspired by painting operations and uses methods for statistical example-based synthesis to automate content synthesis and deformation. Our real-time approach takes a form of local inverse procedural modeling based on intermediate statistical models: selected regions of procedurally and manually constructed example scenes are analyzed, and their parameters are stored as distributions in a palette, similar to colors on a painter's palette. These distributions can then be interactively applied with brushes and combined in various ways, like in painting systems. Selected regions can also be moved or stretched while maintaining the consistency of their content. Our method captures both distributions of elements and structured objects, and models their interactions. Results range from the interactive editing of 2D artwork maps to the design of 3D virtual worlds, where constraints set by the terrain's slope are also taken into account.

Lost in second life: virtual embodiment and language learning via multimodal communication

Increased recognition of the role of the body and environment in cognition has taken place in recent decades in the form of new theories of embodied and extended cognition. The growing use of ever more sophisticated computer-generated 3D virtual worlds and avatars has added a new dimension to these theories of cognition. Both developments provide new opportunities for exploring new ways of facilitating language acquisition in the foreign language classroom environment. In this article, through two case studies we examine student interaction in a virtual environment customised for foreign language learning to examine “virtually” embodied and extended cognition. Our examination identifies two particular features of this combination of mind, (virtual) body and (virtual) environment that further underline the potential of 3D virtual worlds as sites for embodied and extended cognition: students often do not distinguish between themselves and their avatars; the boundaries between the real and virtual environments are highly (cognitively) permeable.

Interaction between spatial inhibition of return (IOR) and executive control in three-dimensional space

It has been well documented how spatial inhibition of return (IOR) interacts with executive functions in a two-dimensional plane, i.e., significantly decreased interference at the cued (inhibited) compared to the uncued location. It remains unknown, however, how spatial IOR interacts with executive functions along the depth dimension of the real 3D world. Here, we adapted the Posner spatial-cuing paradigm into a virtual 3D world. The location-based IOR was orthogonally combined with the flanker effect: The target and its flanker could appear at either the cued or the uncued location in a closer or farther depth plane. Moreover, the flanker effect was differentiated into the pre-response and response levels, and the flankers could appear in the either same (Experiment 1) or different (Experiment 2) depth plane from the target. A simple detection task was also adopted to test the pure effect of how visuospatial attention is prevented from returning previously attended location along the depth dimension. The results showed that there existed significant IOR effects only when target was presented in the farther depth plane. Moreover, significantly reversed response-level conflicts were observed at the cued location in the farther depth plane, indicating that spatial IOR toward the farther depth plane was more than a simple effect of attentional orienting. Rather, the inhibitory tagging mechanism may take place. In addition, orienting to the close depth plane resulted in either a facilitatory or null effect. Accordingly, only the pre-response-level conflict was modulated by attentional orienting to the closer depth plane.

Digital citizenship through game design in Minecraft

Purpose– This study aims to describe a library project exploring innovative options for embedding information literacy skills in the elementary school library by utilizing Minecraft, a virtual world three-dimensional (3D) building game environment.Design/methodology/approach– The small-scale descriptive study, with a follow-up survey, focuses on a group of fifth-grade students in an after-school technology club facilitated by the school librarian. The students designed and built a 3D virtual world library game for younger students to help them learn digital citizenship and information literacy.Findings– Analysis of observations, interviews and videos indicated that students were highly engaged in learning information literacy elements throughout all stages of the project from design, building, implementation and testing of younger students.Research limitations/implications– Although the small number of students enrolled in the club is a limitation, the feedback provided strong evidence of motivation for learning through gamification. Further research could assess learning outcomes with the curriculum, specifically for digital citizenship and information literacy.Practical implications– Embedding information literacy into a 3D world allows students to learn computer code, mathematics, game design, and fosters collaboration while demonstrating digital citizenship.Social implications– Game design requires teamwork, a real-life skill essential for students entering the work force.Originality/value– Few articles share student-designed solutions of critical information literacy needs. This study exemplifies constructivist learning in a gaming environment.

From Voss to New York. Norwegian Transmigration to America and the Use of Virtual Worlds in Historical Research

The discipline of history has embraced the research opportunities offered by the rapid development in digital humanities over the past decade or so. Computer technology has enabled text mining and the analysis of large bodies of data to an extent that would have been impossible a generation earlier. The latest generation of interactive applications and user-generated content (‘Digital History 2.0’), however, allows for a different approach to presenting and researching the past. In the research project which underpins this article we use an online 3D virtual world not only to portray emigration from Norway to America but also to pioneer a new approach to historical research. Freely available virtual world software (Open Sim) was used to recreate the journey of an emigrant travelling from Voss to New York in the early 1880s. The Voss farm and the port of Bergen are included in the virtual world, as is New York. A particular emphasis, however, is the lesser-studied ‘England leg’ of the journey, via Hull and Liverpool, which had become the standard emigration route by the 1870s, and we describe this journey in some detail. We also describe the experience of creating a historical virtual world to guide others interested in this means of historiography. Aside from official records, there is frustratingly little evidence of the experience of Norwegian migration, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of individuals were involved. Just as fictional accounts have gained credibility as valuable sources of information ‘from below’, we make the case that the “indirect personal stories” of descendants and their contribution to microhistory need to be given proper consideration as potential sources. Given how widely dispersed the informants are, we argue that online interactive spaces are an essential tool for historians, and we should not be put off by current technological limitations and challenges.

An examination of interactions in a three-dimensional virtual world

Three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds hold the users' attention by providing rich interaction in an environment similar to the real world. User engagement duration is known to increase in environments with intense interaction. However, information in the literature about whether gender, experience, or spatial ability affects interaction in these environments is limited. In this study, these three factors are compared to users' depth of interaction in a 3D virtual world. In addition, the relationships between engagement duration, spatial ability, and depth of interaction are examined to investigate whether the first two factors can predict the third. Findings showed that users' depth of interaction was not influenced by gender, but experience and spatial ability did affect interaction. A strong relationship was determined between depth of interaction and engagement duration, and a moderate relationship was found between depth of interaction and spatial ability. Findings indicated that when designing 3D environments, it is important to consider which kinds of tasks provide more interaction and to what extent spatial abilities affect interaction, as well as to prepare activities that will increase engagement duration and to devise strategies to enhance depth of interaction.

Intelligent Open Data 3D Maps in a Collaborative Virtual World

Three-dimensional (3D) maps have many potential applications, such as navigation and urban planning. In this article, we present the use of a 3D virtual world platform Meshmoon to create intelligent open data 3D maps. A processing method is developed to enable the generation of 3D virtual environments from the open data of the National Land Survey of Finland. The article combines the elements needed in contemporary smart city concepts, such as the connection between attribute information and 3D objects, and the creation of collaborative virtual worlds from open data. By using our 3D virtual world platform, it is possible to create up-to-date, collaborative 3D virtual models, which are automatically updated on all viewers. In the scenes, all users are able to interact with the model, and with each other. With the developed processing methods, the creation of virtual world scenes was partially automated for collaboration activities.

Exploring the Implications of Virtual Reality Technology in Tourism Marketing: An Integrated Research Framework

AbstractThe proliferation of the Internet and other technological innovations has transformed the structure of the tourism industry as well as affected how tourism destinations are perceived and consumed. The 3D virtual world provides opportunities for destination marketing organizations to communicate with targeted markets by offering a rich environment for potential visitors to explore tourism destinations. However, as of yet, there is little understanding about how to effectively market tourism destinations to virtual world participants who are technology users as well as potential consumers. The purpose of the present study is to develop a research framework that integrates the technology acceptance model (TAM) and self‐determination theory to understand how tourists use a 3D virtual world. Primary data were obtained for this study through self‐administered Web questionnaires. The data were conducted in a laboratory setting with 186 participants. This study contributes to the empirical TAM literature by applying the model to a 3D virtual tourism site. Additionally, this study provides a research framework to capture the entertainment nature of a 3D virtual world by extending the TAM to incorporate psychological elements of self‐determination theory to understand consumer experience. From the perspective of tourism professionals, this study contributes to an understanding of how best to construct informative and interactive tourist destinations in 3D virtual worlds to attract potential online and real‐world tourists. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Generating Spatial Referring Expressions in Interactive 3D Worlds

This paper discusses the computational problem of generating referring expressions (REG) in 3D virtual worlds. We propose a REG algorithm that attempts to make adequate choices of spatial relations for the purpose of disambiguation (as opposed to, e.g., determining the localisation of a previously identified object). The decisions made by the algorithm are based on existing computational models of spatial reference, and further refined by the use of domain knowledge obtained from a corpus of instructions in virtual environments. The proposed approach is shown to outperform a number of baseline systems, and provides evidence on how a standard REG approach may be applied to the generation of these descriptions in 3D virtual worlds.

A Comparison of learning gains when using a 2D simulation tool versus a 3D virtual world: An experiment to find the right representation involving the Marginal Value Theorem

The use of three-dimensional Virtual Worlds in the classroom offers the promise of engaging and authentic learning experiences. Given the effort and investment involved in the creation of these worlds, more studies are needed which measure the learning gains. In particular, greater understanding is needed concerning what aspects of the technology are beneficial for learning what sort of content and in what context. We conducted two experimental studies involving 129 biology students over a two-year period that sought to make a contribution towards this understanding. Our study compared the knowledge of students after a traditional classroom lecture about a biological theorem known as Marginal Value Theorem, with their knowledge after they were exposed to simulations of two-dimensional models developed in NetLogo and three-dimensional models developed in Unity3D. Perhaps due to cognitive overload and distractors in the virtual world, it appears that the two-dimensional NetLogo model delivered better learning outcomes.

A Combined Approach Toward Consistent Reconstructions of Indoor Spaces Based on 6D RGB-D Odometry and KinectFusion

We propose a 6D RGB-D odometry approach that finds the relative camera pose between consecutive RGB-D frames by keypoint extraction and feature matching both on the RGB and depth image planes. Furthermore, we feed the estimated pose to the highly accurate KinectFusion algorithm, which uses a fast ICP (Iterative Closest Point) to fine-tune the frame-to-frame relative pose and fuse the depth data into a global implicit surface. We evaluate our method on a publicly available RGB-D SLAM benchmark dataset by Sturm et al. The experimental results show that our proposed reconstruction method solely based on visual odometry and KinectFusion outperforms the state-of-the-art RGB-D SLAM system accuracy. Moreover, our algorithm outputs a ready-to-use polygon mesh (highly suitable for creating 3D virtual worlds) without any postprocessing steps.

Exploring the Learning Potential of Acoustic Design in 3D Virtual Environments

This paper discusses the current research and understanding of the effects of audio environments on learning, with a particular focus on the affordances of the effects in computer-generated, 3D virtual environments and virtual worlds. Both sound and music have different effects on different people, and this has been one of the confounding issues in the search for a generalizable theory of the effects of audio environments on learning. This in turn has meant that the affordances of both soundscapes and musicscapes in education remain under-researched, particularly in multi-media environments such as virtual worlds. Using evidence from student experiences when studying an online Master’s programme that runs entirely in a virtual world, synthesized with research in the subject areas of virtual learning, music and sound, we argue for a change in approach; that, in the case of 3D online virtual worlds and similar environments, the personal control that users have over the environment in which they learn presents opportunities for choice of their own, personal soundscapes and musicscapes to enhance individual learning experiences. This also presents a fertile ground for research into immersion, engagement, simulation and virtual environments as facilitators of learning when utilising both ambient and contextual sound with music, or alone. We therefore propose research in this field.

Physical and social presence in 3D virtual role-play for pre-service teachers

Numerous studies have explored the affordances of 3D virtual worlds. Although previous studies indicated that virtual worlds would be helpful for experiential and collaborative learning through enhancing physical and social presence, few studies have investigated what determines physical and social presence and what are their roles in learning and teaching in virtual worlds. The current study investigates the influences of individual differences such as age, gender, and epistemological beliefs on physical and social presence. This study also investigates the influences of physical and social presence on situational interest and perceived achievement in virtual role-play. The role-play activity allowed pre-service teachers (n=151) to teach their peers in realistic classroom contexts within Second Life and to reflect on their language use as teachers. This study found that pre-service teachers' age and epistemological beliefs significantly influenced their physical and social presence in the virtual world. This finding implies that physical and social presence are influenced not only by the representational fidelity of virtual worlds but also by individual differences. In addition, physical and social presence positively influenced situational interest and perceived achievement. More attention should be paid to the roles of physical and social presence in teaching and learning in virtual worlds.

Building Technology and Science Experiences in 3D Virtual World

Abstract Technology and science experiences play a fundamental role in a society of constant changes and the seemingly endless streams of easily accessible information. Because of this, adult continuous education has arisen as a means of enhancing the understanding of current social, scientific and technological challenges. The “Technology and Science Experiences virtual scenarios” project aims to engage adults in collaborative learning within Second Life, supplying them with learning resources, sources of expertise and flexible, levelled, engaging activities. The potential of Second Life in education is being explored alongside the creation and implementation of a virtual scenario case study entitled “The solar system”.