1. Lecture1. Introduction to Virtual Reality CSCE 458 Fall 2004
Chang-Hun Kim
Department of Computer Science
Korea University

2. SIGGRAPH 2004 Video Review Electronic theater program
Go To Sleep [5:21], The Mill
3D music video
Rock the World [2:35], School of Vision Art
Political satire
Rockfish [8:28], Blur Studio
Realistic rendering
Animation theater program
Oddworld Stranger CG Intro [2:49], Oddworld Inhabitants
Commercial animation

3. SIGGRAPH 2004 Video Review Animation theater program
Riba [5:57], One Plus One / Supinfocom
Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR)
“Muscle System and Skin Solver” on Hellboy [2:17], Tippett Studio
Muscle-based animation
“Machine City” in the Matrix Revolutions [3:18], Tippett Studio
Realistic rendering
Massive Arabesque [2:50], Microsoft Research
Augmented Reality

4. Contents What is VR? Related Areas History
State of the Art and Research Issues

5. What is VR? Glove  CG Machine  HMD Concept
This is not exactly VR!!!
Concept
High level: Replication of reality
Low level: 3D interface / interaction
Studies on reality  Computational reality
Analogous to AI
AI as a science / engineering
Science: Computational model for intelligence
Engineering: Making “intelligent-looking” machines

6. Target of VR VR = Computational reality
Seek for the computational model of reality
Apply the model to the VR system
The essence of science: Search for models
Astrology: Heavenly bodies (stars, sky)
Physics: Nature
Philosophy: Human mind
Virtual reality: Computational model of reality

7. Understanding VR in the Context of Modeling Efforts
Intelligence  AI
Life  Artificial life
Reality  Artificial (or virtual) reality
Economy  Computational economy

8. VR Terminologies (1/2) Virtual reality
Computer generated environment that is ...
Immersive ex) IMAX, dome projection
Interactive ex) Computer game
Multi-sensory
Viewer-centered 3D
Combination of various technologies
To build the environments above
Physical participation in the interactive simulation

9. VR Terminologies (2/2) Virtual environment (VE) Cyberspace
A computational model or
Realization of it by VR techniques
Cyberspace
A computer environment spanning ...
Multiple computers,
Multiple users, and
Multiple sets of data

10. VR Devices

11. VR as a Computer Technology
Ultimate computer interface
Human body and its sensor
Turn the whole body into an input device
Technological trends
Powerful: Supercomputing, parallel computing
Smart: AI
Physical: VR
Primary concern
Software
Other important issues
Hardware, human factors, social issues, infrastructure

12. VR vs. Existing Media Immersive Interactive 3D Multi-modal Mediated
Information is not sent back and forth directly
Mediated virtual environments

13. Virtual Presence (1/2) Sense of “being there(or presence)”
Effectiveness of communication depends on VP
Medium create VP: Movie, poem, novel, TV, ...
Feeling of Virtual Presence
Reading a book
BBS, chatting
Listening to live recording of music
Virtual Presence = f(Vividness, Interactivity)
Vividness = f(Sensory breadth, Sensory depth)

14. Virtual Presence (2/2) Sensory breadth
Number of sensory modalities
Some of modalities may be redundant, but enhance the presence
ex) Rainstorm scene: Raindrops, its images & sound, smell
(Printer, Telephone, TV) vs. (Motion platform, Sensorama)
Sensory depth: (Amount / Quality) of information
Movies : 35mm, Cinemascope, 70mm, IMAX,…
Interactivity
Response time
Range: Amount of changes that can be effected on the VEs
Mapping: Human actions to virtual actions
Vividness vs. Interactivity

15. HCI Conceptual Model Basic components of VR system Issue Machine
Interface
Human
Issue
How to put them together?
How to conceptualize the system
HCI

16. New Paradigm for HCI Conventional Computer VR-based Computer Computer
World
Conventional Computer
Virtual
World
VR-based Computer

17. Related Areas Tele-Operation, Simulator Technology
Computer Graphics, Artificial Intelligence

18. 1. Training Simulation (1/2)
ex) Flight simulation
Modern flight simulator is considered to be the most sophisticated application of a virtual environment.
This photograph depicts a state-of-art, Boeing 777, full-flight simulator with a 6 DOF motion platform, panoramic collimated display, 3D sound system and force feedback flight controls with the ability to take-off or land at any international airport in the world.
(Courtesy Thomson Training & Simulation Ltd)

19. 1. Training Simulation (2/2)
Characteristics
Reconfigurable by changing software
May include highly unnatural environment
Highly interactive and adaptive
A wide variety of
Human sensing modalities and
Sensory-motor systems
Highly immersive
Difference
Near field can be real, far field is synthetic
VR: Near field is simulated

20. 2. Tele-operation (1/2)

21. 2. Tele-operation (2/2) Tele-operator Tele-presence
A machine is controlled by a human at a distance
Tele-presence
Sense of being “Physically Present”
With virtual objects at the remote tele-operator site

22. Various Tele-operators
Directly (manually) controlled tele-operator
Continuously controlled by human
Master-slave : Kinematically equivalent
Rate-controlled : Controls velocity
Tele-robot
Limited sensing or manipulation tasks autonomously
Needs tele-robot’s intelligence
Supervisory control
Needs: tele-sensor, tele-manipulator
RE, VE, Tele-oper
Tele+VE: overcome time delay
VE+RE: Augmented Reality
Tele-presence vs. Virtual Presence
Sence of being physically present with virtual objects at remote TO site

23. 3. Computer Graphics Modeling Motion control (animation) Rendering
User interface

24. 4. Artificial Intelligence
Get: Studies on perception and cognition
Conditions for perceiving VE as real as possible
Perception and cognition for the virtual agent
Give: Testbed for AI research

25. History 1st Stage: Some Visionaries
2nd Stage: Technology for Specific Purposes
3rd Stage: VR as the General-Purpose Technology
Next Stage: Toward a Scientific Discipline

26. 1st Stage: Some Visionaries
Morton Heilig
ExperienceTheater (1962), Sensorama Simulator (1962)
Ivan Surtherland
“Sketchpad: a man machine graphical communication system”(1963) Ph.D thesis
Head-mounted display (HMD) (1966)
Myron Krueger
“Artificial Reality” (1972) -- new word
William Gibson
“Cyberspace” (1984)

27. Heilig’s HMD (1960)
U.S. Patent no. 2,955,156

28. Heilig’s Sensorama (1962)
U.S. Patent no. 3,050,870

29. 2nd Stage: Technology for Specific purposes
Training simulator
Edwin Link: Vehicle simulation (1920s)
Evans&Sutherland, Martin-Marietta, GE, Westinghouse, Thomson
Space exploration
NASA for simulation for astronaut training
First VR system -- VIEW(Virtual Interface Environment Workstation)
Tele-operation
Began as early as 1940
Head Controlled TV system by Argon Lab.

30. Training Simulator

31. 3rd Stage: VR as the General-Purpose Technology
Jaron Lanier
VPL: Dataglove, EyePhone, VR system (1987)
Coined “virtual reality”(1989)
VR as CHI perspective
VR industry
Frontiers: Division, Sense8(WorldToolKit), WorldDesign, W-industry(game)
Merge into industry: Proslovia, EAI
VR academia
MIT, UNC(University of North Carolina), UW(University of Washington), Naval Postgraduate School, Tokyo University

32. Next Stage: Toward a Scientific Discipline
Computational Reality
A new computing paradigm
A new media: 3D in the web
A new art form
Representation, Creation and Operation of Virtual World

33. Current Research Issues
Computer generation of VEs
Design of tele-robots
Improvement of Multi-Modal Interfaces
Study of human behavior
Development of communicating systems for VE
Merging VE and RE (Real Environment)

34. Information Resources
Journals
Conference Proceedings
Magazines and Newsletters
Books
Web Sites

35. Journals Presence International Journal of Virtual Reality
MIT Press, quarterly published since 1992.
tele-robotics, psychophysics, human factors, HCI, not much computer graphics.
International Journal of Virtual Reality
England

36. Conference Proceedings (1/2)
IEEE VR (formerly Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium (VRAIS))
VRAIS – held in 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997
IEEE VR – since 1998
Virtual Reality Software Technology (VRST) Conference
ACM SIGCHI and Pacific-Rim countries, since 1994.
VR software.
International Conference on Virtual Sysytems and Multimedia (VSMM)
City of Gifu, Japan, since 1995.
VR, multimedia.
International Conference on Artificial Reality and Tele-existence (ICAT)
Japan, held annually since 1993.
S. Tachi at Tokyo University
tele-robotics, VR.

37. Conference Proceedings (2/2)
Symposium on the VRML (Held since 1995.)
ACM SIGGRAPH
ACM SIGGRAPH, held annually since 1978.
computer graphics, recently VR.
EuroGraphics (Since 1979.)
PacificGraphics (Since 1993.)
Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics
Graphics Interface
ACM SIGCHI
ACM SIGCHI, held annually since 1984.
ACM UIST
IEEE Visualization

38. Magazines and Newsletters
Cyber Edge Journal (terminated)
published bi-monthly.
mostly covers VR industry and applications.
Real Time Graphics
focused on so-called "image generation" technology.
Virtual Reality World (terminated)
all kinds of non-serious aspects of VR and entertainment.

39. Books There are numerous VR books, most of them are junk.
At this moment, there is no book that can be adequately adapted as a textbook.
Artificial Reality II
Myron Krueger, Addison-Wesley 1991.
Well-thought essay on artificial reality and electronic culture.
(If you are interested in the electronic culture, you must purchasea copy of "Being Digital" authored by N. Negroponte.)
Better read end-to-end if you have time.
Pictorial Communication in Virtual and Real Environments,
Stephen Ellis, Taylor & Francis 1990.
collections of papers on vision-related psychophysics.
Most of papers are not relevent to VR, but some are very useful.
Virtual Reality: Scientific and Technological Challenges
Nathaniel Durlach and Anne Mavor (eds.), National Academy Press 1994.
report by the Committee on VR Research and Development, established
by the NRC (National Research Council).
good reference for overview, state of the art, R&D issues.
If you are writing a VR proposal, this is the one you want!

40. Web Sites General resources in virtual reality Research centers
Research centers
Conferences
Distributed virtual reality
VRML