Archive of applications and projects carried out in the past at the
virtual reality lab. Graphics, virtual reality, multimodal interaction The theme in this work is: Virtual Reality and Graphics
Some VR experiments that we have carried out:
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Moving around in 3D space is not straightforward. In this experiment,
we tried to solve this problem by using the intuitive
'grab-and-drag'-metaphore. The user wears a data glove, and when
he/she bends all fingers into a fist, the entire world can be moved
by moving the hand (the position and orientation of the hand is
tracked by a Flock Of Birds sensor). As long the hand is NOT in a
fist, the user can have any kind of interaction with the virtual world
(such as playing a virtual piano, see the next example). This method
works quite well for small worlds, but is not very convenient in
larger worlds, as the viewpoint is only changed a few decimeters with
each drag.
See a movie of this: 1.0 MB
MPEG
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Wearing the data glove, you can play a virtual piano. The actuators
on
the glove give haptic feedback for each finger. This means that when
you 'touch' the piano keys with a specific finger, the black
cylinders
on top of that finger (on the glove) start to vibrate, to indicate
the
contact. The further the key is pressed, the stronger the vibration.
The 3D piano and hand are contained in a multi-user virtual
environment. This means that other viewers can see and hear you play
in real-time. This opens up many possibilities for collaborative
music
making in a 3D environment through the internet. Imagine people in
different places around the world playing real/virtual instruments,
connected to the same system, who can see and hear each other play in
a virtual band/orchestra...
See a movie of this: 3.8 MB
AVI
(MotionJPEG), 844
KB DivX or
1.0 MB
MPEG |
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Similar to the previous example: play 'air drum' with 2 ordinary drum
sticks, to which we've attached position sensors. Virtual drum sticks
on the screen follow the movements of the sticks in your hands; when
a
virtual stick hits a virtual drum, a sound is triggered. Hit the
drums
harder, and the resulting sounds will be louder!
1) Virtual drumming on 2 drums (2.5 MB
AVI or 621 KB MPEG)
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2) Virtual drumming on a complete drum kit (3.8
MB
AVI, 8
89
KB DivX or 937
KB MPEG)
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(as you can see, we like our things 'virtual'...:-)
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A 3D avatar that can play any drum part that you want. Just load a
MIDI file containing a drum part, and the drummer will figure out how
to play it (e.g. which hand to use for which note etcetera). Finally,
the drummer plays along with the music.
Go to the
Virtual Drummer site.
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In this somewhat older project, a local theater was modeled in VRML.
The Virtual Music Centre functions as a central point for many other
projects related to artificial intelligence, dialogue systems,
human-computer interaction and navigation in 3D worlds.
The VMC home page
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The 3D reconstruction of an old castle in our area. The system is
designed to let historians visualise alternative theories. For
example, different versions of the castle can be viewed, walls can be
moved, etcetera.
Visit Huys Hengelo. |
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Our research group participates in the VRINT project (Virtual Reality
INitiative Twente) which focuses -among others- on medical
applications of VR technology.
The VRINT
web site |
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The Gulliver museum was designed by Mathias Stuk. The museum
represents Gulliver's travels through the modern age. For
demonstration purposes, this virtual reality model of the museum was
created by students in the course 'Computer Graphics and Virtual
Reality'. The goals of the project were both designing a usable model
and learning the VRML language.
Visit Gulliver |
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A demonstration of flocking behavior of fish, using Reynolds flocking rules.
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