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Browsing by Subject "Virtual reality"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Beyond the message: Examining how engaging message mediums impact visitor displacement in emerald ash borer-treated woodlands
    (2022-10) Rannow, Brett A.
    A variety of factors, including aesthetics, can significantly influence a recreator’s decision to revisit or displace from a setting. Invasive species can significantly change an area’s appearance and, unless visitors are informed about and understand the change, discourage visitation (McFarlane & Watson, 2008; Müller and Job, 2009; Schneider et al., 2019). Moving beyond static signs, advanced communication technologies like augmented and virtual reality show promise to meaningfully engage visitors (Ahn et al., 2014; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), increasing understanding of landscape changes and potentially retaining visitation. However, limited work addresses if and how such technologies significantly influence visitor behavior. To address this gap, four informational interventions about forest management treatments utilized in response to emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) were tested. Informational interventions included photos with text, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and a control group that received no treatment information. State park visitors were randomly assigned to interventions and indicated displacement intentions following intervention exposure. Displacement intentions in response to the treated landscapes ranged from 12-26%. A Chi-Square Test compared displacement intentions across informational interventions and found more engaging technologies changed displacement intentions in only one of the four management responses assessed. Future research with other outcomes and management topics will be useful to refine the utility of AR and VR in this realm.
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    The Influence of Acute Stress on the Perception of Robot Emotional Body Language: Implications for Robot Design in Healthcare and Other High-Risk Domains
    (2017-07) Thimmesch-Gill, Zane
    In coming years, emotionally expressive social robots will permeate many facets of our lives. Yet, although researchers have explored robot design parameters that may facilitate human-robot interaction, remarkably little attention has been paid to the human perceptual and other psychological factors that may impact human ability to engage with robots. In high-risk settings, such as healthcare—where the use of robots is expected to increase markedly—it is paramount to understand the influence of a patient’s stress level, temperament, and attitudes towards robots as negative interactions could harm a patient’s experience and hinder recovery. Using a novel between-subject paradigm, we investigated how the experimental induction of acute physiological and cognitive stress versus low stress influences perception of normed robot emotional body language as conveyed by a physically-present versus virtual reality generated robot. Following high or low stress induction, participants were asked to rate the valence (negative/unhappy to positive/happy) and level of arousal (calm/relaxed to animated/excited) conveyed by poses in five emotional categories: negative valence-high arousal, negative valence-low arousal, neutral, positive valence-low arousal, positive valence-high arousal. Poses from the categories were randomly intermixed and each pose was presented two or three times. Ratings were then correlated with temperament (as assessed by the Adult Temperament Questionnaire), attitudes towards and experience with robots (a new questionnaire that included measures from the Godspeed Scales and Negative Attitudes about Robots Survey), and chronic stress. The acute stress induction especially influenced the evaluation of high arousal poses – both negative and positive – with both valence and arousal rated lower under high than low stress. Repeated presentation impacted perception of low arousal (negative and positive) and neutral poses, with increases in perceived valence and arousal for later presentations. There were also effects of robot type specifically for positively-valenced emotions, such that these poses were rated as more positive for the physically-present than virtually-instantiated robot. Temperament was found to relate to emotional robot body language. Trait positive affect was associated with higher valence ratings for positive and neutral poses. Trait negative affect was correlated with higher arousal ratings for negative valence-low arousal poses. Subcategories within the robot attitudes questionnaire were correlated with emotional robot poses and temperament. To our knowledge this dissertation is the first exploration of the effects of acute and chronic stress on human perception of robot emotional body language, with implications for robot design, both physical and virtual. Given the largely parallel findings that we observed for the poses presented by the physically-present versus virtually-instantiated robot, it is proposed that the use of virtual reality may provide a viable "sandbox" tool for more efficiently and thoroughly experimenting with possible robot designs, and variants in their emotional expressiveness. Broader psychological, physiological, and other factors that designers should consider as they create robots for high-risk applications are also discussed.
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    Snow Rendering for Interactive Snowplow Simulation – Supporting Safety in Snowplow Design
    (Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2011-10) Willemsen, Peter
    During a snowfall, following a snowplow can be extremely dangerous. This danger comes from the human visual system's inability to accurately perceive the speed and motion of the snowplow, often resulting in rear-end collisions. For this project, the researchers' goal is to use their understanding of how the human visual system processes optical motion under the conditions created by blowing snow to create a simulation framework that could be used to test emergency lighting configurations that reduce rear-end collisions with snowplows. Reaction times for detecting the motion of the snowplow will be measured empirically for a variety of color set-ups on a simulated snowplow that slows down while driving on a virtual road with curves and hills. Current efforts have implemented a blowing snow model that will eventually be integrated into a real-time driving simulation environment. Concurrently, a simulated driving environment has been developed that will serve as the basis for testing the effects of color and lighting alternatives on snowplows. In initial pilot experiments, the simulated driving environment has been effective at testing subject reaction times for following a snowplow through high luminance contrast (normal daylight driving) and low luminance contrast (daylight fog) conditions. The results of this work will move the researchers closer to determining optimal color and lighting configurations on actual snowplows.
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    User Redirection and Alignment for Virtual Reality Experiences in Arbitrary Physical Spaces
    (2021-12) Thomas, Jerald
    One of the most daunting problems virtual reality researchers face is how the user navigates the virtual environment, particularly when it is larger than the tracked physical environment. Natural locomotion, or walking, has been shown to have several benefits compared to other navigation techniques but is restricted by the physical environment size and layout. Redirected walking is a technique that enables natural locomotion within a virtual environment that is larger than the available physical space by introducing unnoticeable discrepancies between the user's physical and virtual movements. Redirected walking algorithms can use these discrepancies to map a virtual path onto a more compressed physical path, effectively increasing the size of the physical environment. However, redirected walking still has several shortcomings that prevent it from being used widely outside of academia. The work in this dissertation represents several novel frameworks and methodologies that push the envelope and change how we think about redirected walking. In total, this dissertation presents five significant contributions to the existing body of redirected walking research. These contributions represent new directions in redirected walking research and create a solid foundation for later work. Finally, I discuss the implications of these contributions on redirected walking research moving forward, and I outline several related research vectors for future researchers to develop.