Thesis Degree Program in BIT 2018
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Creating a mobile VR interactive tour guide Robert Lee Seligmann Bachelor’s Thesis Degree Program in BIT 2018 Abstract April 16, 2018 Author(s) Robert Lee Seligmann Degree program Bachelor of Science, Business Information Technology Report/thesis title Number of pages Creating a mobile VR interactive tour guide and appendix pages 74 + 3 Virtual Reality is a concept that has existed since 1960. However, it wasn’t very popular in the consumer segment until these recent years. Since 2015, many Virtual Reality headsets arrived on the public market and the development of immersive experiences has opened the gateway to many new opportunities. As part of this work, we will develop a VR applica- tion and focus our research on the history of this technology and its presence in the indus- try. A good VR experience usually requires powerful hardware and equipment, but with the im- provement of smartphone technology, we are now able to create VR application that is playable on most mobile phone. Their hardware and screen resolution are good enough to enjoy a basic VR experience. This thesis will be about developing an application that will allow the users to visit certain points of interest within a city. Inside the virtual world made using 360° footages, the users will be able to select the point they wish to visit with their gaze and will be able to obtain information about the place. The application will be created using the Unity game engine which is used to develop 2D/3D games as well as VR and AR applications. It supports C# as a scripting language and is the easiest and most common tool to develop a VR application. As we don’t have the necessary hardware to run a high-end VR gear, we will be using a smartphone and a Google Cardboard. The testing phase is conducted with 11 people who will test the application and answer a survey about the experience and the usability of the product. The first part of this thesis will include the basic knowledge of virtual reality as well as its uses in the industry. Then, the second part will discuss the development of the application using Unity 3D. It is concluded with a discussion regarding the research that was carried out and the over- all product development process. Keywords Application, Virtual Reality, Tourism, Mobile, Technologies Table of contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 2 Research question ........................................................................................................ 2 2.1 Objective of the project ......................................................................................... 2 2.2 Scope of the project .............................................................................................. 2 3 Background study ......................................................................................................... 3 3.1 Virtual Reality ........................................................................................................ 3 3.1.1 How virtual reality works ............................................................................. 3 3.1.2 Virtual 3D environment ............................................................................... 5 3.1.3 360° video .................................................................................................. 6 3.2 Augmented reality ................................................................................................. 7 3.3 Headset ................................................................................................................ 8 3.3.1 What is a virtual reality headset .................................................................. 9 3.3.2 Cheap headset ........................................................................................... 9 3.3.3 Mid-range headset ................................................................................... 10 3.3.4 High-end headset ..................................................................................... 11 3.4 Headsets sales ................................................................................................... 17 3.5 Types of interactions ........................................................................................... 18 3.5.1 Navigation ................................................................................................ 18 3.5.2 Selection .................................................................................................. 20 3.5.3 Manipulation ............................................................................................. 20 3.6 Virtual Reality usage ........................................................................................... 20 3.6.1 Entertainment ........................................................................................... 20 3.6.2 Military ..................................................................................................... 21 3.6.3 Healthcare................................................................................................ 21 3.6.4 Education ................................................................................................. 22 3.6.5 Engineering .............................................................................................. 22 3.6.6 Tourism .................................................................................................... 23 4 Development framework ............................................................................................. 24 4.1 Unity 3D .............................................................................................................. 24 4.2 Unreal Engine ..................................................................................................... 24 4.3 CryEngine ........................................................................................................... 25 4.4 Selected framework ............................................................................................ 26 5 Empirical part .............................................................................................................. 27 5.1 Interactions ......................................................................................................... 27 5.1.1 Types of interactions ................................................................................ 27 5.2 Scenario.............................................................................................................. 28 5.3 Prototype development ....................................................................................... 30 5.3.1 Plugins used ............................................................................................ 30 5.3.2 Equipment ................................................................................................ 32 5.4 Unity setup .......................................................................................................... 32 5.4.1 Creating and setting up a scene ............................................................... 32 5.4.2 Video player ............................................................................................. 34 5.4.3 Building the application to smartphone ..................................................... 36 5.5 Unity development .............................................................................................. 37 5.5.1 Blink effect ............................................................................................... 37 5.5.2 Level manager ......................................................................................... 39 5.5.3 Interactive button...................................................................................... 40 5.5.4 Menu ........................................................................................................ 45 5.5.5 Multi-language ......................................................................................... 55 5.5.6 Voice command ....................................................................................... 57 5.6 Results ................................................................................................................ 58 5.6.1 Approach ................................................................................................. 58 5.6.2 Test users ................................................................................................ 59 5.6.3 Questions ................................................................................................. 59 5.6.4 End results ............................................................................................... 60 6 Discussion ................................................................................................................... 62 6.1 Summary ............................................................................................................ 62 6.2 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 62 6.3 Quality of the results ........................................................................................... 63 6.4 Problems encountered ........................................................................................ 63 6.5 Evaluation of the thesis process .......................................................................... 64 6.5.1 Methodology