scholarly journals Virtual place during quarantine – a curious case of VRChat

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-75
Author(s):  
Michał Rzeszewski ◽  
Leighton Evans
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Place Attachment ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Loss Of Contact ◽  
Preliminary Research

During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic many governments imposed forced lockdowns and implemented social distancing measures. At the same time there was also a large increase in gaming sales, which was particularly pronounced in the Virtual Reality (VR) sector of the market. We hypothesize that this is no coincidence since VR immersion and the capability of inducing embodiment and a feeling of presence can mitigate the loss of contact with outside world. VR has social and spatial potential to provide space and place for human interactions in time when physical contracts are restricted. To investigate this, we analyse reviews of VRChat (a social VR game) posted on the Steam platform, both before and during the pandemic. Among several themes that were identified, we found indications that spatiality plays an important role in the players’ experience. Users describe virtual worlds of the game using emotional language that suggest bonding and presence of place attachment. In the reviews made during the pandemic there is a strong theme of safety associated with virtual places of VRChat – a replacement of physical space that is no longer accessible or is perceived as unsafe. At least for some users, VRChat has provided a sympathetic and comfortable environment during the pandemic to act as a surrogate for social interaction during social distancing and isolation. Future interviews with users are needed to extend and validate this preliminary research.

Avatars

2010 ◽  
pp. 33-48
Author(s):  
Angela Adrian
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Dimensional Image ◽  
On Line ◽  
Hindu Deity

Virtual worlds may be the future of e-commerce. The game designers who fashioned these flourishing virtual worlds have invented a much more appealing way to use the internet: through an avatar. This usage of the term was coined in 1985 by Chip Morningstar, a user of the first avatar environment created by LucasFilm called Habitat. Habitat lacked many of the features we have in today’s games such as quests and puzzles. It was more similar to a social MUD in which the interactivity between avatars was the ultimate goal. According to Encarta: “Avatar [Sanskrit]: 1. incarnation of Hindu deity: an incarnation of a Hindu deity in human or animal form, especially one of the incarnations of Vishnu such as Rama and Krishna. 2. embodiment of something: somebody who embodies, personifies, or is the manifestation of an idea or concept. 3. image of person in virtual reality: a movable three-dimensional image that can be used to represent somebody in cyberspace, for example, an Internet user.” Unlike previous video game alter-egos, these avatars can be completely customized and are designed mainly for social interaction (Lastowka and Hunter, 2004). The average player dedicates hundreds of hours (and hundreds of dollars, in some cases). To cultivate his avatar. A survey suggested that approximately 20 percent of Norrath’s citizens deem it their place of residence; they just commute to Earth and back. To a large and growing number of people, virtual worlds are an important source of material and emotional well-being. (Yee). Ordinary people, who are bored and frustrated by regular web commerce, participate vigorously and passionately in avatar-based on-line markets.

Virtual Reality Interfaces Applied to Web-Based 3D E-Commerce

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Unai Elordi ◽  
Alvaro Segura ◽  
Jon Goenetxea ◽  
Aitor Moreno ◽  
Jon Arambarri
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Product Placement ◽  
The Other ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Shopping Experience ◽  
On Line ◽  
Web 3D ◽  
The Web

E-commerce is well established on today’s Internet and has created its own set of techniques for performing and optimizing sales. Traditional shops on the other hand provide a physical space in which decoration and space are relevant. In this paper we present innovative interfaces that join the concepts of real shops and on-line e-commerce in a Web-based virtual reality platform. The idea involves making the e-shopping experience more intuitive, closer to the experience of visiting a real shop, and providing on-line 3D interfaces for the entire process from shop design and product placement to customer experience analysis. We researched traditional marketing and sales techniques and the way they can be transferred to 3D virtual reality environments. Web 3D technologies allow us to implement interactive virtual worlds on the Web, accessible for everyone over different platforms and without special applications or plug-ins.

scholarly journals Controlling Teleportation-Based Locomotion in Virtual Reality with Hand Gestures: A Comparative Evaluation of Two-Handed and One-Handed Techniques

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 715
Author(s):  
Alexander Schäfer ◽  
Gerd Reis ◽  
Didier Stricker
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
Interaction Techniques ◽  
Hand Gestures ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Effectiveness And Efficiency ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Additional Hardware ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Virtual Reality (VR) technology offers users the possibility to immerse and freely navigate through virtual worlds. An important component for achieving a high degree of immersion in VR is locomotion. Often discussed in the literature, a natural and effective way of controlling locomotion is still a general problem which needs to be solved. Recently, VR headset manufacturers have been integrating more sensors, allowing hand or eye tracking without any additional required equipment. This enables a wide range of application scenarios with natural freehand interaction techniques where no additional hardware is required. This paper focuses on techniques to control teleportation-based locomotion with hand gestures, where users are able to move around in VR using their hands only. With the help of a comprehensive study involving 21 participants, four different techniques are evaluated. The effectiveness and efficiency as well as user preferences of the presented techniques are determined. Two two-handed and two one-handed techniques are evaluated, revealing that it is possible to move comfortable and effectively through virtual worlds with a single hand only.

scholarly journals Rear-Seat Productivity in Virtual Reality: Investigating VR Interaction in the Confined Space of a Car

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Jingyi Li ◽  
Ceenu George ◽  
Andrea Ngao ◽  
Kai Holländer ◽  
Stefan Mayer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Rear Seat ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Confined Space ◽  
Physical Restraints ◽  
Working Environments ◽  
Research And Design

Ubiquitous technology lets us work in flexible and decentralised ways. Passengers can already use travel time to be productive, and we envision even better performance and experience in vehicles with emerging technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) headsets. However, the confined physical space constrains interactions while the virtual space may be conceptually borderless. We therefore conducted a VR study (N = 33) to examine the influence of physical restraints and virtual working environments on performance, presence, and the feeling of safety. Our findings show that virtual borders make passengers touch the car interior less, while performance and presence are comparable across conditions. Although passengers prefer a secluded and unlimited virtual environment (nature), they are more productive in a shared and limited one (office). We further discuss choices for virtual borders and environments, social experience, and safety responsiveness. Our work highlights opportunities and challenges for future research and design of rear-seat VR interaction.

scholarly journals Resilient Research in the Field: Insights and Lessons From Adapting Qualitative Research Projects During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 160940692110161
Author(s):  
Syahirah Abdul Rahman ◽  
Lauren Tuckerman ◽  
Tim Vorley ◽  
Cristian Gherhes
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Qualitative Research Methods ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Building Resilience ◽  
Digital Methods

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the implementation of unprecedented social distancing measures, restricting social interaction and with it the possibility for conducting face-to-face qualitative research. This paper provides lessons from a series of qualitative research projects that were adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure their continuation and completion. By reflecting on our experiences and discussing the opportunities and challenges presented by crises to the use of a number of qualitative research methods, we provide a series of insights and lessons for proactively building resilience into the qualitative research process. We show that reflexivity, responsiveness, adaptability, and flexibility ensured continuity in the research projects and highlighted distinct advantages to using digital methods, providing lessons beyond the COVID-19 context. The paper concludes with reflections on research resilience and adaptation during crises.

scholarly journals Children’s interactive storytelling in Virtual Reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-67
Author(s):  
Dylan Yamada-Rice
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Interactive Storytelling ◽  
Head Mounted Display ◽  
Visual Style ◽  
Multimodal Methods ◽  
Core Points

This article reports on one stage of a project that considered twenty 8–12-years-olds use of Virtual Reality (VR) for entertainment. The entire project considered this in relation to interaction and engagement, health and safety and how VR play fitted into children’s everyday home lives. The specific focus of this article is solely on children’s interaction and engagement with a range of VR content on both a low-end and high-end head mounted display (HMD). The data were analysed using novel multimodal methods that included stop-motion animation and graphic narratives to develop multimodal means for analysis within the context of VR. The data highlighted core design elements in VR content that promoted or inhibited children’s storytelling in virtual worlds. These are visual style, movement and sound which are described in relation to three core points of the user’s journey through the virtual story; (1) entering the virtual environment, (2) being in the virtual story world, and (3) affecting the story through interactive objects. The findings offer research-based design implications for the improvement of virtual content for children, specifically in relation to creating content that promotes creativity and storytelling, thereby extending the benefits that have previously been highlighted in the field of interactive storytelling with other digital media.

Affective digital presence: How to free online writing and drawing?

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Gilbert ◽  
Miranda Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Online Writing ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Emancipatory Learning ◽  
Online Experience

Online learning can be an alienating experience; students can feel their emotions are disregarded, marginalized or even viewed as hindrances as they try to motivate themselves to learn, staring at the dancing pixels of their illuminated screens. They feel at a remove from other students, trapped in other rooms, far away from them. The closeness of bodies in a shared physical space is raised as an absence. And yet, we contend in this article that connecting with affect in online learning spaces could build connectivity that counteracts the alienation of social distancing. Raw creative affective discourses can be challenging, and uncomfortable for others to take in but they are necessary online. We show that using non-digital practices such as drawing and writing freely, without inhibitions, can immeasurably enhance the online experience, giving a space for affect to be expressed in a safe but emancipatory learning architecture.

Virtual Reality (VR) in Pediatrics: Innovative Perspectives With Special Reference To Clinical Applications and Pediatric Rehabilitation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Bittmann
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Mixed Reality ◽  
Clinical Applications ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Data Glove ◽  
Input Devices ◽  
Head Mounted Displays

Virtual reality (VR) is the term used to describe representation and perception in a computer-generated, virtual environment. The term was coined by author Damien Broderick in his 1982 novel “The Judas Mandala". The term "Mixed Reality" describes the mixing of virtual reality with pure reality. The term "hyper-reality" is also used. Immersion plays a major role here. Immersion describes the embedding of the user in the virtual world. A virtual world is considered plausible if the interaction is logical in itself. This interactivity creates the illusion that what seems to be happening is actually happening. A common problem with VR is "motion sickness." To create a sense of immersion, special output devices are needed to display virtual worlds. Here, "head-mounted displays", CAVE and shutter glasses are mainly used. Input devices are needed for interaction: 3D mouse, data glove, flystick as well as the omnidirectional treadmill, with which walking in virtual space is controlled by real walking movements, play a role here.

Jawa El Khash, The Upper Side of the Sky: Virtual Worlds as Sites for Ecological and Cultural Resurgence

Public ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (61) ◽  
pp. 304-307
Author(s):  
Nina Bakan
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Natural Ecology ◽  
The Relationship

Damascus-born artist, Jawa El Khash’s immersive installation, The Upper Side of the Sky (2020), combines virtual reality and Syria’s natural ecology to confront the physically devastating impacts of war. In response to ISIS’s 2015-16 occupation of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, El Khash evaluates the relationship between technology and the environment to explore the ability for virtual reality to rebuild destroyed landscapes and create sites for healing.

DEVELOP TO TEACHING APPROACH 3D PRIMITIVES WITH VIRTUAL REALITY

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 32-38
Author(s):  
Fakhriddin Nuraliev ◽  
◽  
Ulugbek Giyosov
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching Approach

Since the last few decades, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) interfaces have shown the potential to enhance teaching and learning, by combining physical and virtual worlds and leveraging the advantages of both. Conservative techniques of content presentation (fixed video, audio, scripts) lack personalization and interaction.

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