Postsecondary STEM courses include substantial mathematics and algorithms. Students need motivation to dig deep into the topic. Multisensory modeling allows users to explore objects with multiple senses, i.e., audio, visual, and touch. If augmented with virtual reality (VR), the overall experience could be more immersive and enjoyable. This research investigated students’ experience with unimodal versus multimodal visualization and exploration of wave functions with and without VR integration. Students interactively explored wave functions, i.e., sine, cosine, sawtooth, square, and triangular waves, with 3D models to concretize understanding of wave parameters, i.e., frequency, amplitude, phase, and vertical shifts. Initial findings showed that students preferred the audio-visual exploration of wave functions over the visual-only version in VR-enhanced and non-VR platforms. Overall, VR enriched their experience while interacting with the data.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability often characterized by sensory processing difficulties that can lead to anxiety, particularly in children and adolescents. Previous research on virtual reality-based anxiety intervention tools focuses on using social skills training, exposure therapy, and meditative coaching to mitigate social and phobia related anxiety. However, minimal work has specifically evaluated the effects of virtual multi-sensory environments for people with ASD, often only testing feasibility. This pilot study aims to build on previous work by investigating how various auditory, visual, and interactive components contribute to user satisfaction and sensory-related anxiety reduction. The objective is to gain a better understanding of what features are significant towards developing a successful virtual anxiety intervention tool. Results suggest using interactive activities that promote fine motor skills can provide a healthy outlet for self-mediated stress relief. Future development aims to incorporate task-based activities, and enhance audio, visual, and lighting displays. The deployment of a full-scale study with a larger sample size and target participant pool is warranted to substantiate these initial findings.
The design of the lighting environment is important for determining room specifications. Recently, systems that can change the lighting environment in a room by controlling the direction and intensity of light using a computer have been proposed. However, with such a method of controlling the light, it is easy to specify the size and position of the brightly illuminated area, but not the darkened area. In this study, we controlled shadows and proposed a method for controlling dark areas. We construct Spot Shadow, a system that can generate shadows of arbitrary sizes and shapes at positions specified by users. The prototypes of a tabletop system and a large system can create shadow generation areas of 1 x 0.9m(2) and 7 x 4.3m2, respectively. This study proposes a method for manipulating shadows and demonstrates new possibilities for creating interactive spaces using shadows.
Polarization has been considered to be a reference instead of near-infrared light sources in eye tracking because the light emitted from a liquid-crystal display is typically polarized. However, the degree of polarization depends on the display content. Thus, devising a novel method is crucial for stably extracting the display reflection from the corneal surface. Therefore, we propose an eye-tracking method that inserts a white background between the display contents using a high-speed display to extract the screen reflection on the cornea. A high-speed camera and polarization modulator are integrated to extract the polarized light emitted from a high-speed display, and then the point-of-gaze is estimated. We evaluated the accuracy of the estimated point-of-gaze under several conditions to compare the proposed method with conventional approaches. The results revealed that the proposed method improved eye gaze estimation.
Designing accessible locomotion methods for individuals who are blind or have low vision (BLV) is a complex challenge, particularly in mobile VR environments with limited interface options. In this paper, we propose a novel locomotion technique on mobile VR that enables users to control a virtual character’s movement while staying stationary or within a small physical area. The technique utilizes the phone’s gyroscope for movement control, while providing spatial audio and vibration feedback to enhance virtual exploration for BLV individuals. Our study examines how BLV individuals acquire spatial knowledge in mobile VR environments. A user study is conducted to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
