Collaborative VR

Environment

Deepak Kumar Singh-IHC2013004

Sisir Kumar Sarkar-IHC2013005

Virtual Reality• Virtual Reality refers to a high-end user interface that

involves real-time simulation and interactions through

multiple sensorial channels.

Virtual Reality Environment A computer generated world with which user can interact is

called Virtual Environment

This interaction can vary from looking around to interactively modifying the world.

Collaborative VR Environment• CVEs, are used for collaboration and interaction of possibly

many participants that may be spread over large distances.

• The applications are usually based on the shared virtual environment.

CVE Architecture[1]

1. Centralized primaries

Centralized primaries-

• All primary replicas of each data item resides on the same computer called server.

• Advantages: complete server control over the scene

• Disadvantages: performance is limited by the server computer

2. Distributed primaries

Distributed primaries

• Primary replicas are distributed among the computers.

• Advantages: high performance and scalability

• Disadvantages: difficult programming model, weaker consistency

3. Data ownership

Data ownership

• Primaries are allowed to migrate among the computers. This approach is often called system with transferable data ownership.

• Advantages: more flexibility compared to Distributed Primaries

• Disadvantages: high amount of ownership requests may limit the system performance

4. Active replication

Active replication

• Active replication uses peer-to-peer approach while all replicas are equal. Usually, atomic broadcast is used to deliver updates to all of them, thus they are kept synchronized.

• Advantages: complete scene synchronization (equal scene content on all computers)

• Disadvantages: the performance is limited by the slowest computer in the system

Popular Collaborative VR Environment[2]

Social entertainment

Education/Training

Built environment: architectural walkthroughs

Medicine: surgery simulation

Technology used

Binocular Omni-Orientation Monitor (BOOM)

Head-coupled stereoscopic display device.

Uses CRT to provide high-resolution display.

Convenient to use.

Fast and accurate built-in tracking

Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE)

VRML(Virtual Reality Modeling Language)

Standard language for interactive simulation within the World Wide Web.

Allows to create "virtual worlds" networked via the Internet and hyperlinked with the World Wide Web.

Aspects of virtual world display, interaction and internetworking can be specified using VRML without being dependent on special gear like HMD.

• VR models can be viewed by Netscape or IE with a browser plug-in.

Advantages :

Save time

NO to Loneliness

Work in a Team

Disadvantage :

Initial cost is High

Increases Unemployment

Prolong usage may cause Psychological or Mental Stress

Recent Discoveries[3]

DIVE[4]

PlayStation MOVE[5]

Research Group

1.Advanced VR Research Centre (AVRRC) Loughborough University, UK http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/avrrc/

2. National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) [6]-Argonne National Laboratory

-Alliance Center for Collaboration, Education, Science and Software (ACCESS)3.Immersive Interaction Group http://iig.epfl.ch/4.Swiss Federal Institute of Technology http://archiveweb.epfl.ch/vrlab.epfl.ch/research/research_index.html5.University Of Minnesota

http://vr.design.umn.edu/6.Stanford University(Virtual Human Interaction Lab)

http://vhil.stanford.edu/

References1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_virtual_environment

2. http://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality-environments/collaborative.html

3. Collaborative virtual environments: going beyond virtual reality, Roberta L. Gomes, Guillermo J. Multimedia and Expo, 2003. ICME '03. Proceedings. 2003 International Conference on (Volume:2 )

4. https://www.durovis.com/dive.html

5. http://us.playstation.com/ps3/playstation-move/

6. http://vr.coe.ecu.edu/rave/RAVEtext.htm