VR.Dirt and Other Stuff

VR Dirt and Other Stuff

It seemed like no matter which VR class, paper or

panel I attended, and I attended several of them, the

same issues kept coming up: Concerns about the

physiological and psychological effects of VR systems

on users, the need for more useful interfaces, and the

desire to provide more sensuous feedback to users.

In fact, all of these issues came up during the panel on

"A National Research Agenda for Virtual Reality: Report

by the National Research Council Committee on VR

R&D" (NRCC). The panelists presented recommen-

dations made by the committee which have been pub-

lished in a new book, Virtual Reality: Scientific and

Technological Challenges.

Physiological

The physiological and psychological effects of VR

systems will be a deciding factor in the development

of VR as a useful technology. Symptoms such as eye

strain, motion sickness, sopite syndrome and others

associated with prolonged use of HMD's must be ad-

dressed before VR can become a practical technology

and environment to use and work in. One panelist,

Randy Pausch of the University of Virginia, mentioned

a Sega VR HMD which was supposed to be released

but was never heard of again after Sega commissioned

a study of the effects of long term use of HMDs. No

news in this case may not necessarily be good news.

Reasearchers were unable to say conclusively whether

prolonged exposure to the HMD would not be harmful.

The researchers made no statements that it was harmful,

just that it was impossible to say it was harmless.

Pausch later suggested that these kinds of issues make

or break an industry and that if there was any threat of

lawsuits companies may be reluctant to invest in products

that may place them in jeopardy. To address these con-

cerns, the NRCC recommended further research into the

physiological and psychological side effects of VR.

Psychological

Although physiological side effects where addressed in

more detail at the conference, psychological side effects

of VR were mentioned and are discussed in the NRCC

publication. In the report, questions are posed regarding

the effects of extended exposure to VR systems on the

users sense of presence in their usual environment, on

the possibility of altering the mental model held of the

user's own body, and on attitudes toward social behaviors

such as sex, violence, and fantasy role playing. The report

seems to suggest that immersive experiences in VR may

have a greater impact than computer role playing games.

There have been reports of individuals giving up most of

their real lives and identities for these fantasies. There is

also some evidence that violent video games may be con-

nected to aggressive behavior in children. It is important

to remember that there is a great deal of research that needs

to be done before any of this can be substantiated and the

NRCC recommends that more research should be conducted

to examine the possibility of these side effects.

Interfaces

During several of the VR panels, projects were discussed

that incorporated the use of physical interfaces. Ian Angus

of Boeing Corporation presented a CAD system that incor-

porated a clipboard that is used as an input device. In his

presentation, he emphasized the benefit of using physical

devices to orient users in virtual environments. Physical

devices provide users with the ability to feel objects in these

environments as opposed to reaching out into an empty

space to push a button or bring up a menu. In this case,

the clipboard corresponded to a panel in the virtual environ-

ment which allowed access to menus and diagrams. Angus

pointed out that one of the limitations of his device was that

it was too small to view large diagrams. But this seemed

to be a problem that could be addressed through software

by adding features that allowed you to zoom into a specific

area of a diagram or by allowing you to change the size

relationship between the input device and the image display.

Randy Pausch also presented several projects developed at

the University of Virginia Department of Computer

Science that incorporated unusual interfaces such as a tennis

ball and a toy bow and arrow. These were pretty amusing to

watch and the audience had a good laugh. But fun and games

aside, these projects illustrate the ease with which users can

relate to virtual environments when provided with tangible

interfaces.

Feedback

Haptic devices are the next big step in achieving more sen-

suous and vivid experiences in VR. To make virtual environ-

ments useful and far more enticing, sensory output will

have to be provided to users. Aside from the PHANToM

there were few haptic devices used in VR systems presented

at any of the panels. This is probably due to the fact that a

large proportion of VR research is dedicated to visual and

audio feedback. To examine some of the current projects

being developed with haptics check out the Switch Gateway

in this issue.