1. Summarized by Geb Thomas
Overview from Virtual Reality, Scientific and Technical Challenges, NRC, 1995
Summarized by Geb Thomas

2. Learning Objectives
Be able to describe the current areas of research related to SE.
Be able to draw a system diagram differentiation teleoperation and virtual environments.
Be able to define augmented reality.
Be able to distinguish the NRC definition of Presence from Ellis’ definition.
Define the distinctions between a simulator and a virtual environment.
Describe common characteristics of SEs.
Define the symptoms of sopite syndrome.

3. Introduction Includes both Virtual Environments and Teleoperation
VE - Human connects to simulated world
Telerobotics - Human connects to a real world via a robot sensors and actuators

4. Scope of the SE Field Multidisciplinary Terminology confusion
input and output
interface
High talk-to-work and excitement-to-accomplishment ratios

5. Current Areas of Research
Computer generation of VE
Design of telerobots
Improvement of human/machine interfaces
Relevant aspects of human behavior
Comm. systems and networks
Computer-generated images of the real world

6. Basic Concepts and Terminology
Teleoperator system -- a human operator, a human-machine interface and a telerobot
facilitate the human operator’s ability to sense, maneuver in, and manipulate the environment
Virtual environments system -- a human operator, a human-machine interface and a computer

8. Augmented Reality System
Virtual and real environments are combined
Information from real environment is directly sensed with see-through display, supplementary information from VE is overlaid on the display
VE, Teleoperator and Augmented Reality together constitute Synthetic Environments

10. Presence Telepresence, virtual presence or synthetic presence
Extent to which the human operator loses his or her awareness of being present at the site of the interface and instead feels present in the artificial environment
Depends on: transparency of interface, amount and kind of interaction

11. VE and Simulator Distinction
VEs are:
Reconfigurable
Can create unnatural environments
Highly interactive and adaptable
Variety of sensing modalities
Strong sense of presence
Simulator is tied to physical system, VE to the operator
Simulator does far field, VE does near field

12. Common Characteristics
Visual and auditory displays
Head-mounted display monitoring head position
Control signals from head, hands, feet or speech
Haptic interface - interfaces hand for manual sensing and manipulation with gloves or exoskeletons

13. Application Domains Entertainment National Defense
Design, Manufacturing, and Marketing
Medicine and Health Care
Hazardous Operations
Education
Information Visualization
Telecommunication and Teletravel

14. Some Psych. Considerations
Most human behavior topics are relevant
Human performance
Sensorimotor resolution
Perceptual illusions
Information transfer rates
Manual tracking

15. Sopite syndrome (simulator sickness)
Symptoms
chronic fatigue,
lethargy
drowsiness
nausea
Causes --
Temperature
Field of view
Visual/kinesthetic misalignment
Interaction effects

16. Current State of Technology
Visual channel
Auditory channel
Position tracking and mapping
Haptic channel
Motion interfaces
Other interfaces

17. Visual channel Poor resolution Limited field of view Excessive weight
Poor fit
May cause sopite syndrome
$10K-$1M
Stereo glasses, booms

18. Auditory Channel Effective, inexpensive and ergonomically reasonable
Limited spatial resolution
Loud speakers are sensitive to head position
Record and playback technologies must store huge quantities of information
Auditory scene analysis requires central processing

19. Position Tracking and Mapping
Real-time measurement of pose
Position mapping
Dense set of 3D positions on a surface
Determine body dimensions
Facial expressions
map real environments

20. Position tracking Mechanical linkages Magnetic sensors optical sensors
acoustic sensors

21. Haptic channel
Complex combination of sensory functions and manipulative functions and electromechanical systems
Lack of recognized social need
Body-based gloves and exoskeletons
Ground-based devices (joysticks, robots)
Tool-handle systems
Skin, tactile displays

22. Motion interfaces Vestibular system, Motor system,
Visual and auditory systems,
Proprioceptive/kinesthetic systems
Tactile systems
Inertial Displays -- body moves
Noninertial displays -- body remains stationary
Treadmills, stair climbers, stationary bikes

23. Telerobotics Design and performance of robots
micromechanical systems
Communication time delays
30 ms between Washington and LA
1 s between Earth and Moon
Supervisory control and predictive displays
Demands of real time input/output
distributed telerobotics

24. Networks Shared virtual environments SIMNET 10baseT standard
300 soldiers in tank and aircraft simulators interacting
10baseT standard
100baseT optional at CoE
1.25 Gbit/s reasonable, with effort

25. Recommendations Promising application areas: Two special projects
Design, manufacturing and marketing
Medicine and health care
Hazardous operations
Training
Two special projects
Modeling the human body
Knowledge transfer

26. Learning Objectives
Be able to describe the current areas of research related to SE.
Be able to draw a system diagram differentiating teleoperation and virtual environments.
Be able to define augmented reality.
Be able to distinguish the NRC definition of Presence from Ellis’ definition.
Be able to define the distinctions between a simulator and a virtual environment.
Be able to describe common characteristics of SEs.
Be able to define the symptoms of sopite syndrome.