We present the results of an evaluation of the performance of the Leap Motion Controller with the aid of a professional, high-precision, fast motion tracking system. A set of static and dynamic ...measurements was performed with different numbers of tracking objects and configurations. For the static measurements, a plastic arm model simulating a human arm was used. A set of 37 reference locations was selected to cover the controller's sensory space. For the dynamic measurements, a special V-shaped tool, consisting of two tracking objects maintaining a constant distance between them, was created to simulate two human fingers. In the static scenario, the standard deviation was less than 0.5 mm. The linear correlation revealed a significant increase in the standard deviation when moving away from the controller. The results of the dynamic scenario revealed the inconsistent performance of the controller, with a significant drop in accuracy for samples taken more than 250 mm above the controller's surface. The Leap Motion Controller undoubtedly represents a revolutionary input device for gesture-based human-computer interaction; however, due to its rather limited sensory space and inconsistent sampling frequency, in its current configuration it cannot currently be used as a professional tracking system.
VR sickness (Cybersickness) presents an important challenge in virtual reality environments. We present the results of a study on the effects of VR technology and VR video content type on VR sickness ...and on autonomous nervous system of the user. The participants watched two omnidirectional (360°) videos of different content types (neutral and action) on five distinct video display types (2D TV screen, three generations of Oculus Rift VR HMDs and on the mobile Samsung GearVR HMD). The Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) in combination with the measurement of the physiological parameters (skin conductance and skin temperature, respiratory frequency and heart rate) were used to monitor the participants’ physiology. The results show that video content significantly affects the SSQ grading and the skin conductance level. VR sickness effects were significantly reported less often with TV display type than with other VR HMDs.
Higher educational institutions in Western Balkan countries strive for continuous development of their teaching and learning processes. One of the priorities is employing state-of-the-art technology ...to facilitate experience-based learning, and virtual and augmented reality are two of the most effective solutions to providing the opportunity to practice the acquired theoretical knowledge. This report presents (apart from the theoretical introduction to the issue) an overall picture of the knowledge of AR and VR technology in education in Western Balkan universities. It is based on a semi-structured online questionnaire whose recipients were academic staff and students from universities in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. The questionnaire differed for each target group; the version for academics comprised 11 questions for 710 respondents, and the version for students comprised 10 questions for 2217 respondents. This paper presents and discusses the results for each question with the aim to illustrate Western Balkan countries’ current state of VR and AR application in education.
Stressors encountered in daily life may play an important role in personal well-being. Chronic stress can have a serious long-term impact on our physical as well as our psychological health, due to ...ongoing increased levels of the chemicals released in the 'fight or flight' response. The currently available stress assessment methods are usually not suitable for daily chronic stress measurement. The paper presents a context-aware chronic stress recognition system that addresses this problem. The proposed system obtains contextual data from various mobile sensors and other external sources in order to calculate the impact of ongoing stress. By identifying and visualizing ongoing stress situations of an individual user, he/she is able to modify his/her behavior in order to successfully avoid them. Clinical evaluation of the proposed methodology has been made in parallel by using electrodermal activity sensor. To the best of our knowledge, the system presented herein is the first one that enables recognition of chronic stress situations on the basis of user context.
Although virtual reality (VR) has already achieved technological maturity, there are still some significant drawbacks for technology acceptance and broader user adoption, presenting research ...challenges. Thus, there is a need for standard, reliable, and quick assessment tools for Virtual Reality-Induced Symptoms and Effects (VRISE) and user experience in VR Assessing VRISE and user experience could be time consuming, especially when using objective physiological measures. In this study, we have reviewed, compared, and performed a suitability assessment of existing standard measures for evaluating VRISE and user experience in VR We have developed a first-person VR game with different scenes and different conditions. For assessing VRISE symptoms, we have used the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and Fast Motion Sickness Score (FMS). For assessing user experience, we have used the short version of the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ-S). We have also used a novel Virtual Reality Neuroscience Questionnaire (VRNQ) for assessing VRISE and user experience aspects. The result has shown that FMS and VRNQ (VRISE section) are suitable for quick assessment of VRISE and that VRNQ (User experience section) is suitable for assessing user experience. The advantage of FMS and VRNQ questionnaires is that they are shorter to fulfill and easier to understand. FMS also enables to record the VRISE levels during the virtual experience and thus capturing its trend over time. Another advantage of the VRNQ is that it also provides the minimum and parsimonious cut-offs to appraise the suitability of VR software, which we have confirmed in our study to be adequate.
New models and methods have been designed to predict the influence of the user's environment and activity information to the driving style in standard automotive environments. For these purposes, an ...experiment was conducted providing two types of analysis: (i) the evaluation of a self-assessment of the driving style; (ii) the prediction of aggressive driving style based on drivers' activity and environment parameters. Sixty seven h of driving data from 10 drivers were collected for analysis in this study. The new parameters used in the experiment are the car door opening and closing manner, which were applied to improve the prediction accuracy. An Android application called
was developed to collect low-level smartphone data about the users' activity. The driving style was predicted from the user's environment and activity data collected before driving. The prediction was tested against the actual driving style, calculated from objective driving data. The prediction has shown encouraging results, with precision values ranging from 0.727 up to 0.909 for aggressive driving recognition rate. The obtained results lend support to the hypothesis that user's environment and activity data could be used for the prediction of the aggressive driving style in advance, before the driving starts.
We present the results of a study evaluating the suitability of an inexpensive eye-tracking device for the enhancement of user experience evaluations. Ensuring a comfortable user experience is an ...important part of the mobile application design process. Evaluation of user experience is usually done through questionnaires and interviews, but it can be improved using eye tracking sensors for user experience studies. We conducted a user experience study of DriveGreen, a mobile application devoted to ecodriving for a transition to a low-carbon society. We used an inexpensive eye-tracking device in addition to standard User Experience Questionnaire and Single Ease Question questionnaires. The results show that the inexpensive eye-tracking device data correlate with data from User Experience Questionnaire and Single Ease Question questionnaires and interviews with users. We conclude that an enhancement of user experience evaluations with inexpensive eye-tracking device is possible.
Reduced coordination of precise small movements of the hand, wrist and fingers in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been mostly solved by medications and deep brain stimulation. The effects have been ...evaluated by clinical tests only.
Virtual reality based exergaming may enhance fine movements, decrease the medications dosage and provide an additional non-subjective evaluation.
3D pick-and-place task (10Cubes) has been developed in a virtual world. The person placed the virtual cubes by the virtual hand, an avatar of the real hand tracked by a Leap Motion Controller (LMC). The system computed the time of manipulating the cube, the total time, the average time, the speed, and the distance. It counted and managed the number of cubes touched, and calculated the hand shake level, i.e. the average tremor index. A pilot test was carried out in a healthy neurologically intact person and a patient with PD using a 3D head-mounted device (HMD) or LCD screen.
The results indicate that substantial and also statistically significant (p< 0.05) differences exist between both participants in all objective parameters; the most noteworthy can be the average tremor index. However, we found the parameters only marginally different with 2D equipment.
The evaluation system of 10Cubes has proved applicable at an unchanged medication plan, but its clinical effectiveness could be confirmed with a randomized study.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Virtual Reality (VR) sickness (Cybersickness) is an affliction and a challenge, common to users of virtual environments. We therefore asked ourselves this research question: “Can video content type ...influence users’ VR sickness and physiological response?” We conducted a study with 26 participants, who watched two omnidirectional videos of different content types (neutral and action content) on five distinct video conditions: 2D TV screen, three generations of Oculus Rift VR HMDs (DK1, DK2 and CV1) and on the mobile Samsung GearVR HMD. The Simulator Sickness Questionnaire and the Subjective Units of Distress Scale in combination with the measurement of the physiological parameters (electrodermal activity and skin temperature, respiratory frequency and heart rate) were used to assess the VR sickness effects. The results show that video content type as well as users’ background preferences (preference to adrenaline sports) affected the users’ VR sickness perception. Considering various video conditions, significantly less VR sickness effects were reported with the TV condition than with any VR devices. The results of the subjective questionnaires were correlated with the objective physiological measurements, whereby skin conductance strongly correlated with the VR sickness effects. The effects were also more pronounced in cases of action video content type. Furthermore, we show there is a strong correlation when assessing the VR sickness effects using subjective questionnaire-based methods (the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire and the Subjective Units of Distress Scale) of various complexity, indicating the simple methods (only one question), can effectively be used as well.
Display omitted
•Confirmed influence of the video content type on the users’ VR sickness response.•Confirmed influence of participants’ background and preferences on the VR sickness response.•VR sickness response assessment by the SSQ, SUDS and physiological response methods.•Evaluation of the experiment procedure (NASA-TLX).
Povzetek. V delu predstavljamo področje pametnih smetnjakov in opisujemo interakcije ljudi s pametnimi smetnjaki ob njihovi uporabi. Upravljanje odpadkov je ena izmed osnovnih nalog pametnega mesta. ...Pametne smetnjake uvrščamo v različne domene glede na njihove tehnične in funkcionalne zahteve. Prva domena so pametni smetnjaki za izvajalce storitev odvoza odpadkov. Druga domena so pametni smetnjaki za domačo uporabo ali vsaj uporabo v zaprtih prostorih. Tudi tehnološko izpopolnjeni izdelki ne prinašajo dodane vrednosti ljudem, če jih nihče ne uporablja. Tretja domena so pametni smetnjaki, ki so nameščeni na javnih mestih, običajno v notranjosti objektov, s katerimi se želi ljudi spodbuditi k skrbi za okolje. Proučili smo metode in načine, namenjene spodbujanju uporabe pametnih smetnjakov in ozaveščanju o potrebni skrbi za okolje. Pogosto uporabljena metoda je poigritev, kjer se s prvinami igre poskuša motivirati ljudi k doseganju izbranega ali novih navad. Ob tem opozarjamo na problematiko uporabe t. i. pametnih naprav, kot je pametni smetnjak, saj lahko z njimi hote ali nehote posegamo v zasebnost ljudi ali pa se ljudje počutijo ogrožene ob uporabi novih tehnoloških rešitev. Za konec na podlagi zbranih spoznanj in dobrih praks predstavljamo svojo prototipno rešitev pametnega smetnjaka. Cilji razvoja pametnega smetnjaka so preprostost uporabe, dobra uporabniška izkušnja in spodbujanje ljudi k večji skrbi za okolje.