This article explores the Oculus suite of virtual reality (VR) technologies, with a specific focus on the period following the company’s 2014 acquisition by Facebook. Through a close reading of ...promotional material, we first describe and analyse the ‘Oculus imaginary’ – the narrative produced by Facebook about the Oculus as integrated into and enhancing the experience of Facebook’s wider suite of social software. The purpose of this narrative, we suggest, is to construct and ‘sell’ a Facebook-specific vision of VR’s potentials – one that is appealing both to end users and platform complementors – and moreover, a vision that appears to be conducive to Facebook’s current methods for accumulating profit and power. Following on, we develop via a study of YouTube user comments posted on promotional videos for the Oculus, an anticipatory account of how the Oculus imaginary is perceived to relate to the lives and values of everyday individuals.
To assess the translational and rotational tracking performance of the Oculus Rift S using controlled robotic motion and a gold-standard motion tracking system.
An Oculus Rift S headset and ...controller were each placed in an industrial robot arm and had Vicon passive markers placed on them. The robotic arm was then translated in three perpendicular directions and performed three orthogonal rotations about three orthogonal axes while the spatial position of the headset and controller were recorded by Vicon motion capture cameras as well as Unity. Positional data was analyzed to determine the difference in tracking between Unity and Vicon to establish the accuracy of the Rift S' tracking capabilities.
It was determined that the translational accuracy of the system was 1.66 ± 0.74 mm for the head-mounted display and 4.36 ± 2.91 mm for the controller, and the rotational accuracy of the system was 0.34 ± 0.38° for the HMD and 1.13 ± 1.23° for the controller.
The high level of accuracy and precision combined with the low cost of the Oculus Rift S and its use of inside-out tracking make it a viable candidate for clinicians looking to incorporate virtual reality.
Implications for Rehabilitation
The Oculus Rift S can report the position and orientation of the user's headmounted display and controllers during gameplay.
The Oculus Rift S provides a more portable VR system which does not require external sensors to track motion, allowing it to be used in a variety of rehabilitation scenarios while still providing adequate motion tracking.
This paper aims to assess how diffusion of Virtual Reality (VR) technology is taking place and identify potential barriers to increased adoption. This is done by utilising Social Media Analytics to ...collect a data set covering an empirical material of 6044 user-generated content concerning the market‑leading VR headsets Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and machine learning to identify critical barriers to adoption. Our findings suggest that there is a lack of sufficient technological performance of these headsets and that more applications are required for this technology to take off. We contribute to literature on VR by providing a systematic assessment of current barriers to adoption while also pointing out implications for marketing.
When virtual reality (VR) entered the consumer market in 2016, it was accompanied by claims of its potential as a “revolutionary” new technology. This article examines these claims of newness by ...focusing on statements made by industry leaders and other professionals. The findings suggest repetitions of problematic discourse, in which colonialist language of “pioneering” expansion appears to be used to mobilize developers who are dominantly young, White, and male. I argue that recontextualizing the “newness” of VR opens opportunities to contest its depoliticized histories and to question its imagined futures. Situating VR within a much longer history of digital and non-digital technologies not only challenges the notions of newness that are foundational to industry-led VR discourse, but also offers a critical alternative.
•Fitts’ law predicts movement time (MT) for 3D discrete pointing movements in VR.•Target size, movement distance, and inclination angle affect MT.•Target size modulates the effect of inclination ...angle on MT in virtual reality.•Including target depth can improve the predictive power of Fitts’ law models in VR.
Virtual reality (VR) interfaces require users to perform three-dimensional reaching and pointing movements to interact with objects positioned within the user's arm's reach. However, there has been limited work that has evaluated the applicability of established models of human motor control to model performance of these tasks in 3D virtual reality environments using current low-cost technologies. In this study, a 3D discrete pointing task using the Oculus Rift system was used to explore potential influences on movement in VR and to account for these influences in a new formulation of Fitts’ law. Target size and distance from the starting point of movement were systematically varied to generate a broad range of index of difficulty (ID) values. Target locations were specified using a spherical coordinate system in which inclination angle corresponded to the pitch of the movement axis with respect to the starting point of movements and azimuth angle corresponded to the roll of the movement axis with respect to the horizontal plane. In line with previous work, we observed that target size, radial distance, and inclination angle had a significant effect on movement time. The effect of inclination angle varied with target size, which suggests that target size affected depth estimation. Significant target characteristics and interaction effects were used to develop an extended Fitts’ law model, which accounted for 64.5% of the variation in movement times. Comparisons to other Fitts’ law models revealed that models accounting for the effects of target depth improved predictive power relative to the traditional Fitts’ law formulation. Together, these findings support the value of extending Fitts’ law models to account for domain-specific constraints in VR environments. We discuss these results in the context of previous work examining HMD display deficiencies and discrete 3D pointing tasks, and suggest several directions for future work.
The use of all-trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide resulted in favourable therapeutic responses in standard-risk acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) patients. However, resistance to these agents ...has made treating the high-risk subgroup more problematic, and possible side effects limit their clinical dosages. Numerous studies have proven the cytotoxic properties of Gaillardin, one of the Inula oculus-christi-derived sesquiterpene lactones. Due to the adverse effects of arsenic trioxide on the high-risk subgroup of APL patients, we aimed to assess the cytotoxic effect of Gaillardin on HL-60 cells as a single or combined-form approach. The results of the trypan blue and MTT assays outlined the potent cytotoxic properties of Gaillardin. The flow cytometric analysis and the mRNA expression levels revealed that Gaillardin attenuated the proliferative capacity of HL-60 cells through cell cycle arrest and induced apoptosis via reactive oxygen species generation. Moreover, the results of synergistic experiments indicated that this sesquiterpene lactone sensitizes HL-60 cells to the cytotoxic effects of arsenic trioxide. Taken together, the findings of the present investigation highlighted the antileukemic characteristics of Gaillardin by inducing G1 cell cycle arrest and triggering apoptosis. Gaillardin acts as an antileukemic metabolite against HL-60 cells and this study provides new insight into treating APL patients, especially in the high-risk subgroup.
Distances in virtual environments (VEs) viewed on a head-mounted display (HMD) are typically underperceived relative to the intended distance. This paper presents an experiment comparing perceived ...egocentric distance in a real environment with that in a matched VE presented in the Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2. Participants made verbal judgments and blind walking judgments to an object on the ground. Both the Quest and Quest 2 produced underperception. Verbal judgments in the VE were 82% and 75% of the object distance, in contrast with real world judgments that were 94% of the object distance. Blind walking judgments were 68% and 70% of object distance in the Quest and Quest 2, respectively, compared to 88% in the real world. This project shows that significant underperception of distance persists even in modern HMDs.
Although cadavers constitute the gold standard for teaching anatomy to medical and health science students, there are substantial financial, ethical, and supervisory constraints on their use. In ...addition, although anatomy remains one of the fundamental areas of medical education, universities have decreased the hours allocated to teaching gross anatomy in favor of applied clinical work. The release of virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices allows learning to occur through hands-on immersive experiences. The aim of this research was to assess whether learning structural anatomy utilizing VR or AR is as effective as tablet-based (TB) applications, and whether these modes allowed enhanced student learning, engagement and performance. Participants (n = 59) were randomly allocated to one of the three learning modes: VR, AR, or TB and completed a lesson on skull anatomy, after which they completed an anatomical knowledge assessment. Student perceptions of each learning mode and any adverse effects experienced were recorded. No significant differences were found between mean assessment scores in VR, AR, or TB. During the lessons however, VR participants were more likely to exhibit adverse effects such as headaches (25% in VR P < 0.05), dizziness (40% in VR, P < 0.001), or blurred vision (35% in VR, P < 0.01). Both VR and AR are as valuable for teaching anatomy as tablet devices, but also promote intrinsic benefits such as increased learner immersion and engagement. These outcomes show great promise for the effective use of virtual and augmented reality as means to supplement lesson content in anatomical education.
Virtual reality (VR) surgery using Oculus Rift and Leap Motion devices is a multi-sensory, holistic surgical training experience. A multimedia combination including 360° videos, three-dimensional ...interaction, and stereoscopic videos in VR has been developed to enable trainees to experience a realistic surgery environment. The innovation allows trainees to interact with the individual components of the maxillofacial anatomy and apply surgical instruments while watching close-up stereoscopic three-dimensional videos of the surgery. In this study, a novel training tool for Le Fort I osteotomy based on immersive virtual reality (iVR) was developed and validated. Seven consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeons evaluated the application for face and content validity. Using a structured assessment process, the surgeons commented on the content of the developed training tool, its realism and usability, and the applicability of VR surgery for orthognathic surgical training. The results confirmed the clinical applicability of VR for delivering training in orthognathic surgery. Modifications were suggested to improve the user experience and interactions with the surgical instruments. This training tool is ready for testing with surgical trainees.
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