Example applications

Some VR experiments that we have carried out:

Navigation in VR using data gloves

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

Air Piano playing in VR

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

Air Drumming in VR

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)
2) Virtual drumming on a complete drum kit (3.8 MB AVI, 889 KB DivX or 937 KB MPEG)

Related projects at our department:

(as you can see, we like our things 'virtual'...:-)

The Virtual Drummer

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.

Also you can see the video (TV-program "KRO's ontbijt-TV").

The Virtual Music Centre

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

Virtual 'Huys Hengelo'

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.

VRINT

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

Gulliver, a virtual museum


Visit Gulliver


TKI VR Lab
Room INF-2082
Department of Computer Science
University of Twente
Enschede, the Netherlands
Telephone: +31 53 4894651
email: g.h.w.hondorp@cs.utwente.nl

This page was created by Martijn Kragtwijk, last update: $Date$.