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Item Rendering and Extracting Extremal Features in 3D Fields(The Eurographics Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2018) Kindlmann, Gordon L.; Chiw, Charisee; Huynh, Tri; Gyulassy, Attila; Reppy, John; Bremer, Peer-Timo; Jeffrey Heer and Heike Leitte and Timo RopinskiVisualizing and extracting three-dimensional features is important for many computational science applications, each with their own feature definitions and data types. While some are simple to state and implement (e.g. isosurfaces), others require more complicated mathematics (e.g. multiple derivatives, curvature, eigenvectors, etc.). Correctly implementing mathematical definitions is difficult, so experimenting with new features requires substantial investments. Furthermore, traditional interpolants rarely support the necessary derivatives, and approximations can reduce numerical stability. Our new approach directly translates mathematical notation into practical visualization and feature extraction, with minimal mental and implementation overhead. Using a mathematically expressive domain-specific language, Diderot, we compute direct volume renderings and particlebased feature samplings for a range of mathematical features. Non-expert users can experiment with feature definitions without any exposure to meshes, interpolants, derivative computation, etc. We demonstrate high-quality results on notoriously difficult features, such as ridges and vortex cores, using working code simple enough to be presented in its entirety.Item User Interaction Feedback in a Hand-Controlled Interface for Robot Team Tele-operation Using Wearable Augmented Reality(The Eurographics Association, 2017) Cannavò, Alberto; Lamberti, Fabrizio; Andrea Giachetti and Paolo Pingi and Filippo StancoContinuous advancements in the field of robotics and its increasing spread across heterogeneous application scenarios make the development of ever more effective user interfaces for human-robot interaction (HRI) an extremely relevant research topic. In particular, Natural User Interfaces (NUIs), e.g., based on hand and body gestures, proved to be an interesting technology to be exploited for designing intuitive interaction paradigms in the field of HRI. However, the more sophisticated the HRI interfaces become, the more important is to provide users with an accurate feedback about the state of the robot as well as of the interface itself. In this work, an Augmented Reality (AR)-based interface is deployed on a head-mounted display to enable tele-operation of a remote robot team using hand movements and gestures. A user study is performed to assess the advantages of wearable AR compared to desktop-based AR in the execution of specific tasks.Item Study of the Influence of User Characteristics on the Virtual Reality Presence(The Eurographics Association, 2018) Mayor, Jesús; Sánchez, Alberto; Raya, Laura; García-Fernández, Ignacio and Ureña, CarlosIn recent years, virtual reality has grown a lot in different areas of application, including ludic, social and research, being used by a large and growing number of users with different profiles. Presence is one of the most distinctive and important features of a virtual reality experience. The aim of this article is to study the most suitable areas of application for users and to analyze the influence of different characteristics of the user's profile in the perceived presence. We have tested the interest applications indicated by 159 subjects and we have designed an immersive virtual reality experience, testing the behavior and performance of 48 users. The results obtained show that gender can influence the perceptual sensation of presence in these types of virtual environments.Item Tablet Fish Tank Virtual Reality: a Usability Study(The Eurographics Association, 2017) Kongsilp, Sirisilp; Ruensuk, Mintra; Dailey, Matthew N.; Komuro, Takashi; Tony Huang and Arindam DeyIn this paper, we describe the development a tablet FTVR prototype that incorporates both motion parallax and stereo cues with the use of easy-to-find hardware. We also present findings of a usability study based on the prototype.Item A Virtual Character Posing System based on Reconfigurable Tangible User Interfaces and Immersive Virtual Reality(The Eurographics Association, 2018) Cannavò, A.; Lamberti, F.; Livesu, Marco and Pintore, Gianni and Signoroni, AlbertoComputer animation and, particularly, virtual character animation, are very time consuming and skill-intensive tasks, which require animators to work with sophisticated user interfaces. Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) already proved to be capable of making character animation more intuitive, and possibly more efficient, by leveraging the affordances provided by physical props that mimic the structure of virtual counterparts. The main downside of existing TUI-based animation solutions is the reduced accuracy, which is due partly to the use of mechanical parts, partly to the fact that, despite the adoption of a 3D input, users still have to work with a 2D output (usually represented by one or more views displayed on a screen). However, output methods that are natively 3D, e.g., based on virtual reality (VR), have been already exploited in different ways within computer animation scenarios. By moving from the above considerations and by building upon an existing work, this paper proposes a VR-based character animation system that combines the advantages of TUIs with the improved spatial awareness, enhanced visualization and better control on the observation point in the virtual space ensured by immersive VR. Results of a user study with both skilled and unskilled users showed a marked preference for the devised system, which was judged as more intuitive than that in the reference work, and allowed users to pose a virtual character in a lower time and with a higher accuracy.Item Evaluating and Comparing Game-controller based Virtual Locomotion Techniques(The Eurographics Association, 2017) Sarupuri, Bhuvaneswari; Hoermann, Simon; Whitton, Mary C.; Lindeman, Robert W.; Robert W. Lindeman and Gerd Bruder and Daisuke IwaiThe incremental hardware costs of virtual locomotion are minimized when the technique uses interaction capabilities available in controllers and devices that are already part of the VE system, e.g., gamepads, keyboards, and multi-function controllers. We used a different locomotion technique for each of these three devices: gamepad thumb-stick (joystick walking), a customized hybrid keyboard for gaming (speedpad walking), and an innovative technique that uses the orientation and triggers of the HTC Vive controllers (TriggerWalking). We explored the efficacy of locomotion techniques using these three devices in a hide and seek task in an indoor environment. We measured task performance, simulator sickness, system usability, perceived workload, and preference. We found that users had a strong preference for TriggerWalking, which also had the least increase in simulator sickness, the highest performance score, and highest perceived usability. However, participants using TriggerWalking also had the most object and wall-collisions. Overall we found that TriggerWalking is an effective locomotion technique and that is has significant and important benefits. Future research will explore if TriggerWalking can be used with equal benefits in other virtual-environments, on different tasks, and types of movement.Item Incorporating Visualization Research in Introductory Programming Course: Case Studies(The Eurographics Association, 2018) Kim, Sunghee; Post, Frits and Žára, JiríThe importance of early research experience for undergraduate students has been stressed time and time again. This paper presents three case studies in which non-CS major students could gain a visualization research experience in their first programming course. In all case studies, students were given real climate data to visualize. In the first case study, students visualized spatial correlation between two variables (weather conditions) on a map so that viewers could infer areas in which the two variables were highly correlated in a positive or negative way, or areas with little to no correlation. In the second and third case studies, students generated single variable visualization and multidimensional visualization of two or four variables. In each of the three case studies the students were led through the process of understanding data, exploring different representations, and designing and implementing an agreed-upon visual representation. Increased number of students decided to take the next course in Computer Science compared to previous years without a research project. Feedback from the students suggests that they enjoyed using data they could understand and found the process and the final product rewarding and applicable to projects in their major and courses.Item Issues and Suggestions for the Development of a Biodiversity Data Visualization Support Tool(The Eurographics Association, 2018) Kaur, Pawandeep; Klan, Friederike; König-Ries, Birgitta; Jimmy Johansson and Filip Sadlo and Tobias SchreckVisualizations are an important tool to transport information. However, finding the right visualization can be challenging. Using the biodiversity research domain as a showcase, we investigate where exactly these challenges are and what a tool should look like that helps scientists overcome them. Our results are based on a survey we performed.Item Blowing in the Wind: Increasing Copresence with a Virtual Human via Airflow Influence in Augmented Reality(The Eurographics Association, 2018) Kim, Kangsoo; Bruder, Gerd; Welch, Gregory; Bruder, Gerd and Yoshimoto, Shunsuke and Cobb, SueIn a social context where two or more interlocutors interact with each other in the same space, one's sense of copresence with the others is an important factor for the quality of communication and engagement in the interaction. Although augmented reality (AR) technology enables the superposition of virtual humans (VHs) as interlocutors in the real world, the resulting sense of copresence is usually far lower than with a real human interlocutor. In this paper, we describe a human-subject study in which we explored and investigated the effects that subtle multi-modal interaction between the virtual environment and the real world, where a VH and human participants were co-located, can have on copresence. We compared two levels of gradually increased multi-modal interaction: (i) virtual objects being affected by real airflow as commonly experienced with fans in summer, and (ii) a VH showing awareness of this airflow. We chose airflow as one example of an environmental factor that can noticeably affect both the real and virtual worlds, and also cause subtle responses in interlocutors.We hypothesized that our two levels of treatment would increase the sense of being together with the VH gradually, i.e., participants would report higher copresence with airflow influence than without it, and the copresence would be even higher when the VH shows awareness of the airflow. The statistical analysis with the participant-reported copresence scores showed that there was an improvement of the perceived copresence with the VH when both the physical-virtual interactivity via airflow and the VH's awareness behaviors were present together. As the considered environmental factors are directed at the VH, i.e., they are not part of the direct interaction with the real human, they can provide a reasonably generalizable approach to support copresence in AR beyond the particular use case in the present experiment.Item Learning from the Best - Visual Analysis of a Quasi-Optimal Data Labeling Strategy(The Eurographics Association, 2018) Bernard, Jürgen; Hutter, Marco; Lehmann, Markus; Müller, Martin; Zeppelzauer, Matthias; Sedlmair, Michael; Jimmy Johansson and Filip Sadlo and Tobias SchreckAn overarching goal of active learning strategies is to reduce the human effort when labeling datasets and training machine learning methods. In this work, we focus on the analysis of a (theoretical) quasi-optimal, ground-truth-based strategy for labeling instances, which we refer to as the upper limit of performance (ULoP). Our long-term goal is to improve existing active learning strategies and to narrow the gap between current strategies and the outstanding performance of ULoP. In an observational study conducted on five datasets, we leverage visualization methods to better understand how and why ULoP selects instances. Results show that the strategy of ULoP is not constant (as in most state-of-the-art active learning strategies) but changes within the labeling process. We identify three phases that are common to most observed labeling processes, partitioning the labeling process into (1) a Discovery Phase, (2) a Consolidation Phase, and (3) a Fine Tuning Phase.