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International Conference on Applied Computing, Computer Science, and Computer Engineering (ICACC 2013)

December 28–29, 2013 | Saipan, USA

Mikhail Fominykh and Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Mikhail Morozov and Andrey Smorkalov Volga State University of Technology, Russia

Increasing Immersiveness into a 3D Virtual World

Motion-Tracking and Natural Navigation in vAcademia

Judith Molka-Danielsen Molde University College, Norway

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Motivation: 3D Virtual Worlds

Strong affordances Serious challenges

Learning in 3D Virtual worlds still has experimental nature

3D Virtual worlds require significant improvement to make them more convenient for educators

and achieve better results

Exploring new ways of using 3D virtual worlds for learning

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Goal: Increasing Immersiveness

Educational 3D Virtual World

Motion-tracking device

controlled by

accessed through

IPT or CAVE Head-mounted

device

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Goal: Increasing Immersiveness

vAcademia

Microsoft Kinect

controlled by

accessed through

ReaCTor CAVE Oculus Rift

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Technology: vAcademia

Sophisticated learning tools + 3D virtual recording

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Technology: Motion-Tracking with Kinect

Low cost motion sensing

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Technology: Cave Automatic Virtual Environments

Unconstrained moving + good field view

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Technology: Head-Mounted Display Oculus Rift

Low cost + good field view + fast tracking

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Prototypes

o Virtualizing Real-life Lectures with vAcademia and Kinect

o Teaching Threshold Concepts with vAcademia and CAVE

o Training and Role playing with vAcademia and Oculus Rift

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o ‘Traditional’ video recording of lectures and web conferences change the context of learning and do not provide immersion as in 3D virtual worlds

o ‘2D’ screen-capture recordings do not provide a possibility for collaborative work or a method for further developing the content

o Combining 3D recording in vAcademia with Kinect for advanced, immersive capturing of lectures

vAcademia and Kinect prototype: Motivation

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o A low-cost technological setup for translating real-life presentations and lectures into a 3D virtual world – Streaming real-life lectures into 3D virtual world – Automatically creating immersive 3D recordings

vAcademia and Kinect prototype: Goal

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vAcademia and Kinect prototype: Implementation

o Achievements and Challenges – Matching avatar, screen and pointer in real and virtual worlds – Recognizing natural and filtering unnatural gestures – Low accuracy, no turns, small area, overlaying objects – Too many restriction on the lecturer’s movements

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Prototypes

o Virtualizing Real-life Lectures with vAcademia and Kinect

o Teaching Threshold Concepts with vAcademia and CAVE

o Training and Role playing with vAcademia and Oculus Rift

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o In immersive VR, participants tend to react as if the scene they are seeing is real (e.g., by moving away from a threat)

o Threshold Concepts* - exploring new ways of learning that stimulate and enhance the potential of human creativity

o Implementation of learning scenarios o Integration of the capability of “VR-replay” feature

that is newly designed in this project to be functional between CAVE and vAcademia

vAcademia and CAVE prototype: Motivation

VSUT *Meyer, J. H. F. and Land, R. (2006). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: issues of liminality.

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o Replaying one’s life-size avatar representation and seeing one’s previous actions

o Using the 3D recording feature of vAcademia in the CAVE for (1) revealing patterns of becoming aware of one's own reflective learning patterns and (2) deciding to use them consciously

o The ultimate objective is promoting students to overcome thresholds and enable them to identify what creativity in learning means in relation to their individual experiences in transformative processes

vAcademia and CAVE prototype: Goal

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vAcademia and CAVE prototype: Implementation (in progress)

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Prototypes

o Virtualizing Real-life Lectures with vAcademia and Kinect

o Teaching Threshold Concepts with vAcademia and CAVE

o Training and Role playing with vAcademia and Oculus Rift

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o Applying for the Threshold Concept scenarios o Extending the immersive experience with

affordability and mobility of the Head-mounted devices

o Multiple locations (without being restricted by a single CAVE facility we have access to)

o Multiple participants of collaborative scenarios (avoiding the rigid single-user CAVE setup)

vAcademia and Oculus Rift prototype: Motivation and Goals

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vAcademia and Oculus Rift prototype: Implementation start

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Thank you!

Andrey Smorkalov smorkalovAY@volgatech.net

Mikhail Morozov morozovMN@volgatech.net

Multimedia Systems Laboratory Volga State University of Technology

http://mmlab.ru/

Acknowledgments

Mikhail Fominykh mikhail.fominykh@ntnu.no

Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland ekaterip@ntnu.no

Judith Molka-Danielsen Judith.Molka-Danielsen@himolde.no

vAcademia

Virtual Spaces LLC http://vacademia.com/

Virtual Environments & Computer Graphics Group University College London http://vecg.cs.ucl.ac.uk/

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