Hmds, Caves & Chameleon: a Human-Centric Analysis of Interaction in Virtual Space
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
HMDs, Caves & Chameleon: A Human-Centric Analysis of Interaction in Virtual Space tied to what is displayed to the user, such which we contrast the various approaches. It is systems also typically permit some means of obvious that other concerns such as cost, input, such as a dataglove [21] or some other speed, fidelity, space requirements, etc. affect high degree of freedom input to support inter- the choice of which technology to adopt_We action with the displayed virtual world. will touch on some of these, but our overall As the art has progressed, alternative tech- objective is more modest: to shed some light nical approaches to VR have emerged. Of on those areas that we feel we best under- these, we distinguish among three: stand. • Head mounted VR: systems as described briefly above, where one typically has a Head Mounted Display head mounted wide view stereo display (HMD)VR coupled with head tracking, and some In HMD VR, the user '~vears" a stereo display, other means of input to support interac- much like a pair of glasses that provides a view tion. into the virtual world. The physical form of • Cave based VI~ where some or all of the these "glasses" can range from something on walls of a room are rear-projection the scale of a motorcycle helmet to a pair of Figure I : Modern inexpensiveHMD: The General Reality stereo displays.The user wears glasses to sunglasses. Figure I illustrates one example of CE-2OOW.(Photo:General Reality Carp.) See page 104 enable viewing the stereo images, and a HMD. ~or color Image. there is a head tracking mechanism to There is a great variety in display quality. control what is projected (i.e., the view) The goal in the technology is to provide the depending on where the viewer is widest field of view at the highest quality and Bill Buxton and George W. Fitzrnaufice located and looking. In addition, there is with the least weight and at a reasonable cost. AliaslWavefront Inc. some mechanism for interacting with The reader is referred to Neale [12] for a what is seen. reasonably up-to-date survey of HMD tech- Abstract • Chameleon type VR: which involves a hand- nology. There are a various approaches to imple- held, or hand moved, display whose posi- There exist a range of high degree of menting virtual reality (VR) systems. The head lion and orientation are tracked in order freedom (HDOF) input devices that can be mounted display (HMD) and Cave approaches to determine what appears on it. used in interaction with such systems. An are two of the best known. In this paper, we Furthermore, the display enables interac- overall directory of sources to input devices discuss such approaches from the perspective tion with what it is showing. can be found in Buxton [3]. Furthermore, a of the types of interaction that they afford. Each of these types of VR system is number of classes of HDOF technoloties are Our analysis looks at interaction from three discussed in more detail below, but the point discussed in the contribution of 5humin Zhai perspectives: solo interaction, collaborative of this paper is not to provide a history or [20] in this special issue. Because of the typical interaction in the same physical space and enumeration of VR systems, per se. mobility of the user (compared to desktop remote collaboration. From this analysis VR, while expensive and still relatively new, systems), however, most HWID systems use emerges a basic taxonomy that is intended to is a powerful technology. It is being applied in a what Zhai calls a flying mouse class of device, help systems designers make choices that range of contexts ranging from entertainment often in conjunction with a dataglove type better match their implementation with the to automotive design. But if one is going to controller. In some cases, each hand is instru- needs of their application and users. engage the technology, then what path to mented in order to support bimanual interac- follow, and why? What are the relevant dimen- tion. Introduction sions? What are the pros and cons of each The issue with virtually all HMDs is that Immersive virtual reality (VR) was first approach? the eyes are covered by the display. suggested -- as were so many other things -- Providing some vocabulary and a frame- Consequently, one sees the virtual world at by Ivan Sutherland in 1965 [17]. Practical work in order to answer and address such the expense of the physical one. Users cannot working systems have now been with us for questions is what motivates this brief discus- directly see their hands nor the devices that over a decade and have been written about sion paper.After introducing each of the three they are controlling. Similarly, they cannot extensively (e.g., Rheingold, 1991) [15]. If one classes of VR systems, we discuss them in directly see objects or other people who are includes the early work of Krueger (1983) terms of their ability to support three types of in their immediate physical environment. [I I], they go back even further. The best interaction: Therefore, in order to function, some repre- known approach to VR is that of the head • Solo: where there is only one person sentation of such entities Irrom the physical mounted display (HMD) coupled with head interacting in the virtual space. world must appear in the virtual one. In order tracking. With such systems, one typically is • Same place collaboration: where there is to use my hands, I most likely must see a presented with a stereo binocular view of the more than one user interacting in the representation of them. Likewise, in order co virtual world, often with stereo audio. By virtual space, but they are physically situ- avoid bumping into a table, I must see a repre- virtue of tracking the viewing position (the ated in the same location. sentation of i~ and to avoid bumping into you, | head) and orientation in the physical world, the • Different place collaboration: where must see an avatar, or some other representa- view and perspective of the virtual are consis- there is more than one user interacting tion of you. tent with what one would experience in the in the virtual space, but they are situated In collaborative work a significant observa- physical world from the same actions. in different physical locations. tion that emerges from this is that, visually, In addition to tracking viewpoint, which is These are the key dimensions according to HMDVR treats those in the same and those in Computer Graphics November19c~ 69 virtual world. However, the way that we can Tracked share the scene has some distinct differences & from HMDVR. Remember that what is Linked displayed is determined by head tracking. If we are both in the Cave, we both are viewing the I same displays, preventing us from each having our own "point of view" (While we can both look at different things and different directions, we both do so as if from the perspective of the current location of the head tracker.) So the good news is, in the Cave we really are // presented with the same view. The bad news Figure 3: Fakespace BOOM3C boom mounted display is, you have to see it from my location, or vice I i (Photo: Fakespace, Inc.) versa. Loose Linked & Mobile In remote collaboration, where two Caves tion is tracked. In addition, it shows that the are linked, this constraint is softened since Figure 2: Schematic showing the relationship among the hands are on the "far" side of the display. each Cave can have a unique view, but eyes, hands and display in HMD Style VR. Finally, it shows that all three are physically everyone within a single Cave must share the coupled, and mobile within physical space. same one. But the advantage of being able to see each other in the context of the virtual remote physical spaces in the same way (some According to these criteria, and for the scene is lost when collaborating across would say equally poorly, since visually there is purposes of this paper, boom-mounted multiple Caves. In remote collaboration one no advantage to "being there" physically). displays, such as illustrated in Figure 3, are a must resort to the same techniques used in There is an important caveat to raise at variation on HMDs, as opposed to a separate HMD VR -- such as the use of avatars or this juncture. Some researchers have found a category (in contrast to the analysis of Cruz- some other representation -- in order to see way around the problem of seeing the phys- Neira, Sandin, DeFanti, Kenyon and Hart, 1992) one's remote collaborators within the virtual ical world (such as objects, their hands, tools [41. space. or other people) while wearing HMDs. One Finally, there is one potential problem that approach is to mount one or more video Caves is unique to same location collaboration in cameras onto the HMD and feed the signals A significantly different approach to VR, called Caves. In the everyday world, you and I may to the displays [19, 2, 16].The cameras func- Cave VR, was introduced by Cruz-Neira, find ourselves on opposite sides of an object tion as surrogate eyes providing a view into Sandin, DeFanti, Kenyon and Hart in 1992 [4]. of interest or discussion. But what happens in the physical world onto which is superim- In this class of VR, the user functions within a a Cave if the object of interest lies within the posed a computer generated view of the room on which one or more of the surfaces confines of the physical walls of the Cave? If virtual world.The result is much like a head's (walls, floor, ceiling ...) is the display.An ideal- we are facing each other in a Cave with a up display, and this approach to VR falls into ized representation of a Cave is shown in the general category of augmented reality Figure 4.