{"title":"Degraded Reality: Using VR/AR to simulate visual impairments","authors":"Pete R. Jones, G. Ometto","doi":"10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576885","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576885","url":null,"abstract":"The effects of eye disease cannot be depicted accurately using traditional media. Consequently, public understanding of eye disease is often poor. We present a VR/AR system for simulating common visual impairments, including disability glare, spatial distortions (Metamorphopsia), the selective blurring and filling-in of information across the visual field, and color vision deficits. Unlike most existing simulators, the simulations are informed by patients’ self-reported symptoms, can be quantitatively manipulated to provide custom disease profiles, and support gaze-contingent presentation (i.e., when using a VR/AR headset that contains eye-tracking technology, such as the Fove0). Such a simulator could be used as a teaching/empathy aid, or as a tool for evaluating the accessibility of new products and environments.","PeriodicalId":296375,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good)","volume":"484 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114003608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Future Agriculture Farm Management using Augmented Reality","authors":"Mingze Xi, Matt Adcock, John McCulloch","doi":"10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576887","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576887","url":null,"abstract":"Augmented reality (AR) technology is blooming in the past few years with a growing number of low-cost AR devices becoming available to the general public. AR techniques have demonstrated the capacity to optimise task efficiency in a broad range of industries and provide engaging entertainment and education experiences. However, the potential of AR has not yet been fully explored. One of the extremely underexplored areas is its application in broad agriculture sector. As a major source of food, agriculture has always been a national priority. Agriculture farming is highly labour-intensive and heavily relies on individual farmer’s expertise, resulting in challenging farm management issues. We argue that AR can make critical contributions to the optimum management of agriculture farms. We take aquaculture ponds as an example, and presented three use cases to show how AR can potentially support more efficient farm management activities: water quality management, remote collaboration, and boardroom discussion.","PeriodicalId":296375,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good)","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125184001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rory M. S. Clifford, Humayun Khan, S. Hoermann, M. Billinghurst, R. Lindeman
{"title":"Development of a Multi-Sensory Virtual Reality Training Simulator for Airborne Firefighters Supervising Aerial Wildfire Suppression","authors":"Rory M. S. Clifford, Humayun Khan, S. Hoermann, M. Billinghurst, R. Lindeman","doi":"10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576892","url":null,"abstract":"Wildfire firefighting is difficult to train for in the real world due to a variety of reasons, cost and environmental impact being the major barriers to effective training. Virtual Reality offers greater training opportunities to practice crucial skills, difficult to obtain without experiencing the actual environment. Situation Awareness (SA) is a critical aspect of Air Attack Supervision (AAS). Timely decisions need to be made by the AAS based on the information gathered while airborne. The type of display used in virtual reality training systems afford different levels of SA due to factors such as field of view, as well as presence within the virtual environment and the system. We conducted a study with 36 participants to evaluate SA acquisition and immersion in three display types: a high-definition TV (HDTV), an Oculus Rift Head-Mounted Display (HMD) and a 270° cylindrical projection system (SimPit). We found a significant difference between the HMD and the HDTV, as well as with the SimPit and the HDTV for SA levels. Preference was given more to the HMD for immersion and portability, but the SimPit gave the best environment for the actual role.","PeriodicalId":296375,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good)","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117072054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can Lucid Dreaming Research Guide Self-Transcendent Experience Design in Virtual Reality?","authors":"Alexandra Kitson, B. Riecke","doi":"10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576889","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576889","url":null,"abstract":"As virtual reality designers, we aim to create technological experiences to better human connection and well-being in hopes of helping humankind and society in a positive way. It is therefore important to ground the frameworks we use in genuine human experience rather than mindlessly apply models that do not account for highly personal and profound experiences. One type of experience that could help create positive connection and decrease self-saliency is self-transcendence. However, currently there does not exist a concrete model for designing self-transcendent experiences for virtual reality. Lucid dreaming, being conscious one is dreaming while in the dream, has the potential to induce self-transcendence; it is essentially the ultimate virtual reality. If lucid dreaming and virtual reality are so similar, then can we research self-transcendent experiences in lucid dreaming and apply that knowledge to virtual reality? In this paper we argue that lucid dreaming could indeed act as a guide for designing transcendent experiences in virtual reality.","PeriodicalId":296375,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good)","volume":"1556 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122699652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Daniel Andersen, Chengyuan Lin, V. Popescu, E. Munoz, Maria Eugenia Cabrera, Brian H. Mullis, B. Zarzaur, Sherri Marley, J. Wachs
{"title":"Augmented Visual Instruction for Surgical Practice and Training","authors":"Daniel Andersen, Chengyuan Lin, V. Popescu, E. Munoz, Maria Eugenia Cabrera, Brian H. Mullis, B. Zarzaur, Sherri Marley, J. Wachs","doi":"10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576884","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576884","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents two positions about the use of augmented reality (AR) in healthcare scenarios, informed by the authors’ experience as an interdisciplinary team of academics and medical practicioners who have been researching, implementing, and validating an AR surgical telementoring system. First, AR has the potential to greatly improve the areas of surgical telementoring and of medical training on patient simulators. In austere environments, surgical telementoring that connects surgeons with remote experts can be enhanced with the use of AR annotations visualized directly in the surgeon’s field of view. Patient simulators can gain additional value for medical training by overlaying the current and future steps of procedures as AR imagery onto a physical simulator. Second, AR annotations for telementoring and for simulator-based training can be delivered either by video see-through tablet displays or by AR head-mounted displays (HMDs). The paper discusses the two AR approaches by looking at accuracy, depth perception, visualization continuity, visualization latency, and user encumbrance. Specific advantages and disadvantages to each approach mean that the choice of one display method or another must be carefully tailored to the healthcare application in which it is being used.","PeriodicalId":296375,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116294789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Employing Synergistic Interactions of Virtual Reality and Psychedelics in Neuropsychopharmacology","authors":"Matthew Moroz, R. Carhart-Harris","doi":"10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576882","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576882","url":null,"abstract":"The increased prevalence of various psychiatric disorders continue to concern [54], [71], [96]. Promising results are starting to emerge from recent experimental interventions employing VR [32], [81], and psychedelics [14], [69] individually. We propose that for certain pathologies researchers need not bother themselves as to which medium offers greater hope. Instead, we hypothesize that the most effective interventions shall necessarily come from a composite approach utilizing both.Traditional medicine adopts similar such synergistic strategies. Combining codeine and acetaminophen increases the analgesic effect. While research into the therapeutic effects of novel interventions using VR and psychedelics, independent of one another, is still in its infancy, we believe that the increased utility of a dual approach justifies closer examination without delay. We posit three main benefits from this integrated intervention. Increases in the efficacy of each individual paradigm due to synergistic coupling, and increases in specificity due to the ability to tailor bespoke therapies for particular individuals and groups, are achieved directly. Such increases in efficacy consequently lead to the third benefit of allowing a therapeutic effect to be achieved while using lower doses of a given psychedelic compound [19].","PeriodicalId":296375,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good)","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121553669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"VR and Empathy: The Bad, the Good, and the Paradoxical","authors":"Matthew Moroz, Kat Krol","doi":"10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576883","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576883","url":null,"abstract":"Virtual reality (VR) is cited as offering the ultimate empathy machine [31]. This theory makes sense intuitively since VR enables a user to step in to another’s shoes and experience the world as they do. We define this specific class of mental state as ‘emotional empathy’ [49].The ability of VR to evoke emotional empathy is widely lauded as a good thing [18], [35], [43]. In this paper we invite labels such as ‘Luddites’ and ‘technophobes’ as we question the soundness of such claims. We instead offer warnings regarding employing VR is this manner and urge caution. Rather than dismiss the usefulness of VR in this realm we offer alternative implementation techniques in order to evoke more positive results in users.VR offers much utility for psychologists, psychiatrists, and neu-roscientists due to the ability it affords to alter cognition. While promoting the medium in general, we offer warnings regarding potential short and long term neurological impacts. We encourage increased research focus on the underlying neural mechanisms that underpin VR’s successful multisensory hijack.","PeriodicalId":296375,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good)","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121036935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ekaterina R. Stepanova, Denise T. Quesnel, B. Riecke
{"title":"Transformative Experiences Become More Accessible Through Virtual Reality","authors":"Ekaterina R. Stepanova, Denise T. Quesnel, B. Riecke","doi":"10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576881","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576881","url":null,"abstract":"Virtual Reality (VR) has immersive powers that can teleport an im-mersant into a virtual world and provide them with an experience of being somewhere that they may not have been able to go to. These powers of VR are most often used for games and entertainment, creating a space for escapism and isolation that may have negative psychological and societal outcomes. In this paper, we argue for an opposing application of VR technology - for promoting wellness and feeling of connectedness with people and the world around us. Such feelings can be elicited as a result of a profound awe-inspiring experience, that expands one’s mental model and consequently leads to a positive behavioral change. Such experiences are described as transformative, or in strong cases ’pivotal’. Unfortunately, these experiences are rare, only accessible by some people, and nearly unavailable for researchers interested in studying this phenomenon. The immersive powers of VR present a unique opportunity to reproduce such experiences in the lab or at home, thus making them accessible both to the public and to the researchers. Having real-time access to an experience of the immersant will allow the researchers to study the progression of the tranformative experiences and understand its effects and precursors. In this paper, we are proposing a framework through which transformative experiences can be studied in VR. Understanding this phenomenon will inform how VR experiences should be designed in order to create a positive impact on our society.","PeriodicalId":296375,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good)","volume":"151 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130740868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Tredinnick, G. Casper, Catherine Arnott-Smith, A. Peer, K. Ponto
{"title":"Using Virtual Reality to Study Health in the Home","authors":"R. Tredinnick, G. Casper, Catherine Arnott-Smith, A. Peer, K. Ponto","doi":"10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576886","url":null,"abstract":"Managing one’s own healthcare has been progressively changing from occurring at hospitals and healthcare facilities to one’s own day–to–day living environment. Due to this change, studying how people care for themselves becomes more challenging as visiting people in their living environments is intrusive and often logistically challenging. LiDAR scanning technology allows for highly detailed capture and generation of 3D models. With proper rendering software, virtual reality (VR) technology enables the display of LiDAR models in a manner that provides immersion and presence of feeling like one is situated in a scanned model. This document describes the combination of using LiDAR and VR technology to enable the study of health in the home. A research project involving the study of how home context affects diabetic patients’ ability to manage their health information in the home is presented as an example. The document finishes by discussing other potential health care applications that could use similar methodologies as those introduced to improve health in the home for additional chronically ill populations.","PeriodicalId":296375,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good)","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116850148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Urban future: Unlocking Cycling with VR Applications","authors":"S. Bialkova, D. Ettema, M. Dijst","doi":"10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576888","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576888","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding how infrastructures and urban environments shape the highly differentiated cycling experiences calls for further investigation. The current study addressed this challenge by employing Virtual reality (VR) applications. Quantitative methods were combined with a video simulation approach to model demand for cycling under different scenarios. VR environment mirroring the streetscape of a Dutch city was created. Environment greenness (green vs. no green), Bicycle path width (wide vs. narrow), Traffic volume (low vs. high) were manipulated. Participants had to cycle within the environments created, and thus having VR bike experience translating real world bike ride. VR experiences and cycling behaviour in response to the manipulated factors were measured.The results showed that participants enjoyed cycling most within green environment (than no green), and with wide (than narrow) bicycle lane. It was safer to cycle within wide bicycle path, and within low (than high) traffic volume. The environment was perceived as more aesthetic when cycling within green environment.Regression modelling further explored the relationship between the parameters hypothesised to influence the VR experiences. The better the naturalness and presence were perceived, the higher was the engagement. The higher the engagement was, the more the VR experience was liked.Current outcomes are unambiguous in showing that VR technology opens new avenues in addressing real-life problems with huge societal relevance, like improving urban environment infrastructure to unlock cycling and thus active transport.","PeriodicalId":296375,"journal":{"name":"2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good)","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132741353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}