Eurographics Digital Library
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Recent Submissions
Conversational Agent for Procedural Building Design in Virtual Reality
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Bosco, Matteo; Kán, Peter; Kaufmann, Hannes; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Sakata, Nobuchika; Sundstedt, Veronica
With the emergence of large language models (LLMs), conversational agents have gained significant attention across various domains, including virtual reality (VR). This paper investigates the use of conversational agents as an interface for procedural building design in VR. We propose a voice interface that allows a user to control parameters of procedural generation and gain insights about the building construction metrics through natural conversation. The pipeline introduced for the conversational agent involves utilizing LLMs in two separate API calls for natural language understanding and natural language generation. This separation enables the invocation of various actions in procedural generation as well as meaningful agent responses to building-related questions. Furthermore, we conducted a user study to assess our proposed conversational interface in comparison to a traditional graphical user interface (GUI) in a VR architectural design task focused on circular economy. The study scrutinize the user-reported usability, presence, realism, errors, and effectiveness of both interfaces. Results suggest that while the non-embodied conversational agent enhances effectiveness due to its explanatory capabilities, it surprisingly decreases realism compared to the GUI. Overall, the preference between the conversational agent and the GUI varied greatly among participants, highlighting the need for further research into the evolving shift towards speech interaction in VR.
Influence of Virtual Reality Setup on Locomotion Technique Usage during Navigation with Walking, Steering and Teleportation
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Brument, Hugo; Zhang, Renate; Kaufmann, Hannes; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Sakata, Nobuchika; Sundstedt, Veronica
The evaluations of Locomotion Techniques (LTs) provide information regarding the advantages and shortcomings of LTs for navigating in Virtual Reality (VR). While the primary approach is to assess the LTs separately (e.g., comparing walking versus steering versus teleportation), little is known about how LTs can be used simultaneously (i.e., how users navigate when several options are offered), especially in different VR setups. This paper aimed to investigate the influence of real and virtual environment size on LT usage during VR navigation for the first time. We conducted a user study (n=24), where participants had to explore a virtual garden and pick up mushrooms. Participants could choose to walk, steer, or teleport. We varied the size of the virtual environment as well as the size of the user's physical workspace. We found that users' LT usage depends on the VR setup. For instance, they tend to do more displacements with teleportation (which was users' favorite technique overall) but would rather walk or steer when the size of the virtual environment is the same as the workspace. This work contributes to understanding user behavior in VR, particularly regarding LT usage, which tends to be an overlooked topic.
Examining the Effects of Teleportation on Semantic Memory of a Virtual Museum Compared to Natural Walking
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Choudhary, Zubin Datta; Battistel, Laura; Syamil, Raiffa; Furuya, Hiroshi; Argelaguet, Ferran; Bruder, Gerd; Welch, Greg; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Sakata, Nobuchika; Sundstedt, Veronica
Over the past decades there has been extensive research investigating the trade-offs between various Virtual Reality (VR) locomotion techniques. One of the most highly researched techniques is teleportation, due to its ability to quickly traverse large virtual spaces even in limited physical tracking spaces. The majority of teleportation research has been focused on its effects on spatial cognition, such as spatial understanding and retention. However, relatively little is known about whether the use of teleportation in immersive learning experiences can effect the acquisition of semantic knowledge - our knowledge about facts, concepts, and ideas - which is essential for long-term learning. In this paper we present a human-subjects study to investigate the effects of teleportation compared to natural walking on the retention of semantic information about artifacts in a virtual museum. Participants visited unique 3D artifacts accompanied by audio clips and artifact names. Our results show that participants reached the same semantic memory performance with both locomotion techniques but with different behaviors, self-assessed performance, and preference. In particular, participants subjectively indicated that they felt that they recalled more semantic memory with walking than teleportation. However, objectively, they spent more time with the artifacts while walking, meaning that they learnt less per a set amount of time than with teleportation. We discuss the relationships, implications, and guidelines for VR experiences designed to help users acquire new knowledge.
Using Simulated Real-world Terrain in VR to Study Outdoor AR Topographic Map Interfaces
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Furuya, Hiroshi; Choudhary, Zubin; DeGuzman, Jasmine Joyce; Gottsacker, Matt; Bruder, Gerd; Welch, Greg; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Sakata, Nobuchika; Sundstedt, Veronica
Augmented reality (AR) technology enables advanced integration of spatial information useful in a variety of important domains, including for reading topographic maps in the field. It is also important to understand how this technology may potentially affect spatial learning ability. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of virtual reality (VR) to conduct a human-subject study investigating the impacts of different simulated AR topographic map interface designs on spatial learning outcomes. Our results show that interfaces that encourage engagement with the interface instead of with the map and the environment result in fast task completion times but poor spatial learning. We also found participant preference for a novel interface design that assists users with map orientation without explicitly guiding the user through the task.
Extension of Wearable Olfactory Display for Multisensory VR Experience
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Zou, Zhe; Prasetyawan, Dani; Wu, Hsueh Han; Cheng, Kelvin; Nakamoto, Takamichi; Hasegawa, Shoichi; Sakata, Nobuchika; Sundstedt, Veronica
An olfactory display is a device that allows users to experience a range of olfactory stimuli. Despite its potential to enhance user experience, challenges remain, including limited odor variety, unwanted odor persistence, constraints on continuous operation, and a restricted range of scent generation. We propose a novel wearable olfactory display that incorporates up to eight odor components to expand the variety of generated scents. Additionally, the device integrates an airflow control system, deodorant filtering, and optimized electrical and mechanical structures. This design aims to provide a more immersive user experience in virtual reality (VR) environments by significantly improving the generation of olfactory stimuli.