Lecture 5: Collaborative Virtual Environments Dr. Xiangyu WANG August 25 th, 2008

Outline  Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) with examples  Issues and challenges in CVEs

Collaborative Virtual Environments  “A CVE is a computer-based, distributed, virtual space or a set of places. In such places, people can meet and interact with others, with agents or with virtual objects” (from CVE’00 conference) Proximity cues: avatars to convey their identity, presence, location. Activity cues: interaction with the contents of the world Information cues: communicate with one another using different media including audio, video, graphical gestures, and text

General Features of CVEs  CVEs represent a paradigm shift in that they provide a space that contains or encompasses data representations and users

Videos:  Secondlife, ActiveWord, CALVIN

The Emergence of CVEs  CVEs can be seen as the result of a convergence of research interests within the Virtual Reality and computer- supported cooperative work (CSCW) communities.  The technology of Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) aims to transform today’s computer networks into navigable and populated 3D spaces that support collaborative work and social play.

Where CVEs are used?  establish an equivalent resource for telecommunication,  support crowded online situations where tens or hundreds of participants negotiate social engagement by dynamically forming subgroups,  crowded virtual trading floors,  shopping malls,  enable participants to discuss and manipulate shared 3D models and visualizations

Application Areas  As Meeting Place  As Information Spaces  As Shared Workspace

CVE as meeting places  An electronic ”container” where meetings and other activities happen over time  Purpose of meeting places: Remote or local users, or both (target on audience) Work, discussions, socializing (target on activity)  Facilities: shared whiteboard, slide-show, generation of awareness information, outlook of a classroom or lecturing hall, round table and chairs, roads leading to the place etc.  Examples: Virtual Campus, VLEARN

Virtual Campus: videos  Texas State University Second Life Virtual Campus  Valencia Community College Virtual Campus

CVEs as information spaces  This metaphor aims at facilitating collaborative information visualization and navigation  Purpose Presenting materials in a certain course Presenting student projects Storing common information resources Presenting personal information  Examples: iPalace, VBI, Viras iPalace

CVEs as shared workplaces  Allows users to work in a shared context on a shared task using shared artifacts.  Facilities: means for mediation of workplace awareness  Examples: SecondLife, Cybergen, Euroland, GrMuseum

Issues and Challenges in CVEs 1. Scalability and interest management The scalability of CVEs can refer to the graphical and behavioral complexity of virtual worlds and their contents. Limitations on scalability arise from a variety of system bottlenecks such as Network bandwidth. Level of details technique:  By arranging the virtual environments so that each participant is not overloaded and sees and hears “enough” of the world but no more, the problems of scale can be diminished.

Issues and Challenges in CVEs 2. Currently many systems are rather clumsy in the way interaction and modality shifts are handled, and the tools for navigation do not always provide the easiest mapping from 'real world' to VE movement. Video watching

Issues and Challenges in CVEs 3. Subjective views Revisit the principle of “What You See Is What I See” (WYSIWIS): The dominant approach to collaboration in CVEs assumes each participant sees the same content, albeit from a different perspective. CVEs now offer users “subjective” views on shared worlds.  These subjective views can reflect the different interests and roles that users inhabiting shared worlds may have. For example, participants inside a 3D architectural model may see different overlays for wiring, plumbing, and networking.

Issues and Challenges in CVEs 4. The use of CVEs to support cooperative work and social interaction presents a new challenge: how can we understand the nature of social interaction within a CVE? New methods may be required to those typically used in evaluating single-user VR systems.