Steffi Beckhaus

• Dr.-Ing.
• Hamburg University

In Chap. 1, VR and AR have already been introduced as innovative forms of human–computer interaction. This chapter deals in detail with the design and realization of interaction and the resulting user interface of a VR/AR system. A user interacts with a virtual world to select (selection) and change (manipulation) virtual objects and to control the...

In Kap. 1 haben wurde schon VR und AR als innovative Formen der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion vorgestellt. Dieses Kapitel behandelt die Gestaltung und Realisierung von Interaktionen und der daraus resultierenden Benutzungsschnittstelle (engl. User Interface) eines VR/AR-Systems detailliert. Ein Nutzer interagiert mit einer Virtuellen Welt, um virtuel...

Virtual environments have become a key component of many fields and the critical component of virtual reality applications. Due to their virtual nature, they can accommodate an infinite number of possibilities. A theoretical work is presented, which decomposes those innumerous possibilities into concepts to help clarify the vast design space and pr...

Travel methods are the most basic and widespread interaction method with virtual environments. They are the primary and often the only way the user interactively experiences the environment. We present a study composed of three experiments that investigates how virtual collisions methods and feedback impact user perception of the realism of collisi...

Virtual collisions are considered an important aspect of creating effective travel interactions for virtual environments; yet, they are not yet well understood. We introduce a new floor based audio-haptic interface for providing virtual collision feedback, the soundfloor. With this device, haptic feedback can be provided through the floor of a proj...

We have developed the Artifact Map as a tool for context analysis. In a first step, this tool supports and structures the early process of, "hunting for stories" by collecting, describing and mapping all artifacts on a floor map as an anchor. Subsequently, this visible, tangible surrogate paper context is collaboratively extended and used in interv...

In this paper we introduce novel methods of intensifying and varying the user experience in virtual environments (VE). VEs technically have numerous means for crafting the user experience. Little has yet been done to evaluate those means of expression (MoEs) for their emotional impact on people and to use their capability to create different experi...

Compared to graphics, sound is still an underused modality for conveying information and providing users with more than just general ambience or targeted sound effects. Collision notification is one case of direct aural feedback: The moment a user hits a wall, they hear an appropriate sound e.g. a thump. We tried to go further by using contextual s...

In this paper we describe a new technique to make users aurally aware of walls surrounding them in a Virtual Environment (VE). This Collision Avoidance (CA) technique improves upon familiar Collision Notification (CN) feedback by constantly informing the user of his proximity to his surroundings through the playback of directional sounds. To render...

Virtual Reality aims at creating an artificial environment that can be perceived as a substitute to a real setting. Much effort in research and development goes into the creation of virtual environments that in their majority are perceivable only by eyes and hands. The multisensory nature of our perception, however, allows and, arguably, also expec...

Games use high quality graphics and pre-crafted visual and auditive effects to create user experiences. Virtual environments offer new navigation and interaction methods, immersive installations, and haptic and olfactoric output. We introduce an extension to VR systems, which makes it possible to use a wide range of multimodal effects from gaming a...

Virtual collisions are reportedly an important part of creating effective experiences of virtual environments. Although they are considered vital, collision responses for travel in a virtual environment are not well understood. The effectivity of methods for notifying users of collisions has not been explored in the context of travel and the method...

Welche Rolle spielen virtuelle Welten für Kunst und Kultur? Die Fortschritte der Forschung und der Technik haben in den letzten Jahren Virtual-Reality-Technologien allgemein verfügbar gemacht. Doch sind sie jetzt ausgereift? Und können virtuelle Welten, die darauf aufbauen und das Eintauchen in eine fremde Welt ermöglichen, selber als eine Art Basi...

Die Möglichkeiten und Wirkungsweisen von Medien lassen sich mit künstlerischen Projekten frei von Anforderungen an das Ergebnis oder ein Anwendungsziel entdecken und erforschen. Bereits in den 60er Jahren untersuchten sowohl Künstler als auch Ingenieure das Medium Computer künstlerisch und kreativ, um Einblicke in die Möglichkeiten des Computers zu...

It is crucial to understand users’ perceptions of virtual environments, if they are to be adopted as a platform for other research. Existing research has focused primarily on the user’s reaction to the environment as a whole and to physical display qualities, but rarely on differences of user perceptions between real and virtual content. In this pa...

We live in a hybrid world where standard computers with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) have become an integral part of our daily life. Additionally, novel user interfaces like tangible user interfaces (TUIs) are among emerging interaction styles that offer new potential as tools for supporting creative tasks and weak-structured workflows. In orde...

Much of Virtual Reality (VR) is about creating virtual worlds that are believable. But though the visual and audio experiences we provide today technically approach the limits of human sensory systems, there is still something lacking; something beyond sensory fidelity hinders us from fully buying into the worlds we experience through VR technology...

Much of Virtual Reality (VR) is about creating environments that are believable. But though the visual and audio experiences we provide today are already of a rather high sensory fidelity, there is still something lacking; something hinders us from fully buying into the worlds we experience through VR technology. We introduce the notion of Experien...

We present a novel, tangible interface demonstrated by means of the artwork, GranulatSynthese, an installation for the intuitive, tangible creation of ambient, meditative audio- visuals. The interface uses granules distributed over a tabletop surface and combines them with rear-projected visuals and dynamically selected sound samples. The haptic la...

The design and implementation of interactions in 3D environments remains a challenge. This is especially true for novices. Mechanisms to support the creation of interaction have been developed, but they lack a central metaphor that fits the natural way in which developers conceptualize interaction techniques. In this paper, we introduce a new frame...

We present a tool for in-class and self-study learning that provides a convenient introduction into GLSL shader programming. The tool presents shaders in an interactive manner, and can be present in-class in a group interactive manner or used as an individual tutorial. In ShaderSchool the materials are presented in sections with interactive assignm...

There is an increasing interest in creating environments containing components that change over time and are yet interactive. As interaction research has focused only on static environments, it is now necessary to start gaining an understanding of how to interact in such environments. In this paper, we present initial work on interaction with Dynam...

We present a tool for in-class and self-study learning that provides a convenient introduction into GLSL shader programming. The tool presents shaders in an interactive manner, and can be present in-class in a group interactive manner or used as an individual tutorial. In ShaderSchool the materials are presented in sections with interactive assignm...

The creation of engaging, interactive virtual environments is a difficult task, but one that can be eased with the development of better software support. This paper proposes that a better understanding of the problem of building Dynamic, Interactive Virtual Environments must be developed. Equipped with an understanding of the design space of Dynam...

This paper presents an experience report on a novel approach for a course on intermediate and advanced computer graphics topics. The approach uses Teachlet Tutorials, a combination of traditional seminar–type teaching with interactive exploration of the content by the audience, plus development of self-contained tutorials on the topic. In addition...

Conception and design of a tabletop tangible user interface to support art historians ‘ work techniques. Integration of the physical and the digital by preserving and augmenting existing work practices with images and text. User-centered approach: starting from the users needs to work with paper and “collect things as tokens, as physical memories ”...

Virtual Reality’s expanding adoption makes the creation of more interesting dynamic, interactive environments necessary in order to meet the expectations of users accustomed to modern computer games. In this paper, we present initial explorations of using the recently developed Functional Reactive Programming paradigm to support the creation of suc...

In this paper we introduce a VR system extension that focuses on the creation of interactive, dynamic Virtual Environments. The extension uses the recently developed programming concept, Functional Reactive Programming. This paradigm focuses on an explicit and more natural concept of time in the modeling of dynamics, without sacrificing interactivi...

In this paper, we present our experience implementing shadows in Scene Graph based Virtual Reality systems. Shadows are an important part of the human perception of both shape and depth and, yet, are a largely missing component in Virtual Environments. In this work, we investigate extending standard Scene Graphs to automatically produce shadowed sc...

This paper focuses at the usage of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) for achieving pseudo-haptic feedback. By stimulating the motor nerves, muscular contractions can be triggered that can be matched to a haptic event. Reflecting an initial user test, we will explain how this process can be realized, by investigating the physiological proc...

In this paper we present our experience applying a new multi-layered project design method to a course on Virtual Reality. We contrast this approach with traditional project methods, based on their respective advantages and disadvantages. We also present the results of the VR course, which was focused on the topic of navigating Virtual Environments...

This paper describes our approaches to foster creativity among students of computer science in the area of interactive virtual environments. We assume that everybody has creative potential. This potential may be covered by beliefs, experiences, and social background that hinder its use in the HCI education context. As a teacher/project coordinator,...

Navigation is one of the most important tasks in virtual environments. We present two novel interfaces for navigation, a dance pad based and a chair based interface. Both interfaces are designed to be intuitive to use by novice users and leave the user’s hands free for other tasks like object manipulation or system control. In an informal study, bo...

The promise of engaging immersive virtual environments has long been a motivating factor within Virtual Reality (VR). One of the greatest potentials in VR has been in the realm of telling stories and provide new and engaging experiences. Research in Virtual Envi-ronments is now shifting its focus to creating structures to enable such stories and ex...

This paper presents a new gaming device and interaction method for First-Person-Shooters (FPS) based on ChairIO, a novel intuitive hands-free interface. ChairIO is based on a stool and is similar to a joystick, but controlled by the user’s body motion. The ChairIO interaction is augmented by a game console gun to form a new interaction method for F...

Humans have complex sensory and control capabilities. Only a few are used in standard games and virtual environments. Examples of games using interfaces beyond mouse, keyboard and screen show the effectiveness of these interfaces in their context. To enhance the experience in games, to generate more immersive VEs, to facilitate new interaction para...

This course focuses on how we can use the potential of the human body in experimental or unconventional interface techniques. It explores the biological or physiological characteristics of the separate parts of the body, from head to toe, and from skin to heart, showing how their sensor (input) and control (output) capabilities can be applied to hu...

This paper gives an overview of the Virtual Showcase as an augmented reality display system for museums. It explains about different hardware prototypes, interaction tools as well as several software techniques to utilize the features of the Virtual Showcase. It also presents two case studies, one from paleontology and one from archeology.

We present a novel point-based rendering approach based on object-space point interpolation. We introduce the concept of a transformation-invariant covariance matrix of a set of points to efficiently determine splat sizes in a multiresolution hierarchy. ...

This paper presents and evaluates a fast graphics hardwarebased voxelization method to spatial analysis, which generates object-coded volume data utilizing the Performer scene-graph. Two color-coding algorithms are introduced. The first one resolves one object per voxel for a large number of objects. The second algorithm extends the first to identi...

Exploring unknown models or scenes is a highly interactive and dynamic process. Systems for automatic presentation of models or scenes either require cinematographic rules, direct human interaction, framesets, or pre-calculation of paths to a known goal. In this paper we present a system which can deal with rapidly changing user interest in objects...

We describe an application supporting alternating interaction and animation for the purpose of exploration in a surround-screen projection-based virtual reality system. The exploration of an environment is a highly interactive and dynamic process in which the presentation of objects of interest can give the user guidance while exploring the scene....

A prototype of a virtual exhibition design environment has been developed in a co-operation with the Kunstmuseum Bonn. The tool allows curators to interactively design art exhibitions in a virtual real-size model of the museum space. Scanned artworks are mounted virtually on the museum walls and the curators gain an authentic spatial impression of...

Exploring unknown models or scenes is a highly interactive and dynamic process. Systems for automatic presentation of models or scenes either require cinematographic rules, direct human interaction, framesets or precalculation of paths to a known goal. We are looking for a system which can deal with rapidly changing user interest in objects of a sc...

Exploring unknown models or scenes is a highly interactive and dynamic process. Systems for automatic presentation of models or scenes either require cinematographic rules, direct human interaction, framesets or precalculation of paths to a known goal. We are looking for a system which can deal with rapidly changing user interest in objects of a sc...

This paper presents an unique method for rendering complex shapes as fuzzy or diffuse objects inside virtual environments. It uses surface geometry that is converted into a voxel-like grid to specify the appearance of the shape. A particle system displays the outline of the object at runtime. Particles are allowed to move freely inside the voxel-gr...

Kurzfassung: Die sitzbasierte Computerschnittstelle ChairIO ist ein sehr intuitives und benutzerfreundliches Eingabegerät für die Navigation in virtuellen Welten und die Steuerung von 3D-Spielen. Das hier vorgestellte Projekt untersucht das ChairIO als Eingabegerät zur Steuerung von "klassischen" Desktop Anwendungen in einer vergleichenden Studie m...

Well-being predominately is a subjective state that denotes a feeling of safety and comfort of body and a happy, content mind. Technology-rich environments like in immersive Vir-tual Reality (VR) leave many people at unease. We tried to enhance the experience in VR to enhance the well-being of users in our environments. For this, we tried to enrich...

Magdeburg, University, Diss., 2002. Computerdatei im Fernzugriff.