Guided exploration in virtual environments

Steffi Beckhaus; Gerhard Eckel; Thomas Strothotte

doi:10.1117/12.430842

22 June 2001 Guided exploration in virtual environments

Steffi Beckhaus, Gerhard Eckel, Thomas Strothotte

Proceedings Volume 4297, Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems VIII; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.430842
Event: Photonics West 2001 - Electronic Imaging, 2001, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

We describe an application supporting alternating interaction and animation for the purpose of exploration in a surround- screen projection-based virtual reality system. The exploration of an environment is a highly interactive and dynamic process in which the presentation of objects of interest can give the user guidance while exploring the scene. Previous systems for automatic presentation of models or scenes need either cinematographic rules, direct human interaction, framesets or precalculation (e.g. precalculation of paths to a predefined goal). We report on the development of a system that can deal with rapidly changing user interest in objects of a scene or model as well as with dynamic models and changes of the camera position introduced interactively by the user. It is implemented as a potential-field based camera data generating system. In this paper we describe the implementation of our approach in a virtual art museum on the CyberStage, our surround-screen projection-based stereoscopic display. The paradigm of guided exploration is introduced describing the freedom of the user to explore the museum autonomously. At the same time, if requested by the user, guided exploration provides just-in-time navigational support. The user controls this support by specifying the current field of interest in high-level search criteria. We also present an informal user study evaluating this approach.

Citation Download Citation

Steffi Beckhaus, Gerhard Eckel, and Thomas Strothotte "Guided exploration in virtual environments", Proc. SPIE 4297, Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems VIII, (22 June 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.430842

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available