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Improving awareness for 3D virtual collaboration by embedding the features of users’ physical environments and by augmenting interaction tools with cognitive feedback cues

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Abstract

The feeling of presence is essential for efficient interaction within Virtual Environments (VEs). When a user is fully immersed within a VE through a large immersive display system, his/her feeling of presence can be altered because of disturbing interactions with his/her physical environment, such as collision with hardware parts of the system or loss of tracking. This alteration can be avoided by taking into account the physical features of the user as well as those of the system hardware and embedding them in the VE. Moreover, the 3D abstract representation of these physical features can also be useful for collaboration between distant users because they can make a user aware of the physical limitations of the others he/she is collaborating with. In this paper we present how we use the Immersive Interactive Virtual Cabin (IIVC) model to obtain this virtual representation of the user’s physical environment and we illustrate how this representation can be used in a collaborative navigation task in a VE. We also present how we can add 3D representations of 2D interaction tools in order to cope with asymmetrical collaborative configurations, providing 3D cues for a user to understand the actions of the others even if he/she is not fully immersed in the shared VE. Last, we briefly explain how we plan to enhance 3D interaction and collaboration by embedding a symbolic 3D user representation that will give 3D information about his/her posture.

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Notes

  1. http://www.infra-visionair.eu/.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Foundation Rennes 1 “Progress, Innovation, Entrepreneurship” and the European Project VISIONAIR (grant agreement 262044) for their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Rennes 1 UEB, IRISA, UMR CNRS 6074, 35042 , Rennes, France

    Thierry Duval

  2. INRIA Rennes Bretagne-Atlantique, IRISA, UMR CNRS 6074, 35042 , Rennes, France

    Thi Thuong Huyen Nguyen & Alain Chauffaut

  3. LRI, Université Paris-Sud, UMR CNRS 8623, 91405 , Orsay, France

    Cédric Fleury

  4. ENS Rennes, UEB, IRISA, UMR CNRS 6074, 35042 , Rennes, France

    Georges Dumont

  5. INSA de Rennes, UEB, IRISA, UMR CNRS 6074, 35042 , Rennes, France

    Valérie Gouranton

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  1. Thierry Duval
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  2. Thi Thuong Huyen Nguyen
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  3. Cédric Fleury
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  4. Alain Chauffaut
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  5. Georges Dumont
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  6. Valérie Gouranton
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Correspondence to Thierry Duval.

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Duval, T., Nguyen, T.T.H., Fleury, C. et al. Improving awareness for 3D virtual collaboration by embedding the features of users’ physical environments and by augmenting interaction tools with cognitive feedback cues. J Multimodal User Interfaces 8, 187–197 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12193-013-0134-z

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