Page 23 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

Representing people with avatars raises special, more complex questions about fidelity in the capture and representation of the interactions between the meshes belonging to the body and those modeling the digital environment. 3D re- constructions of high visual quality are created in time varying mesh (TVM) [Alexiadis], producing
a large volume of heterogeneous data to create a working scenario that constitutes a technical challenge today. This is particularly due to the fact that the TVM data can be compressed by the compression of static mesh or by techniques that take advantage of the correlations of data over time, but the existing compression schemes are not yet capable of supporting real-time applications.
User Interfaces
There are various interfaces that coexist and facilitate the interactions between the user and the systems. The oldest are the graphic user interfaces (GUI) used in software applications. However, natural interfaces (NI) are becoming increasingly more popular for human-computer interaction, with the first generation using gestures for interaction (such as Microsoft Kinect). Tactile/haptic (T/HUI) interfaces em- phasize the experience of touch feedback to manage objects or interact with complex ma- chinery. There are already several haptic or tactile devices on the market, such as Phantom and the various Cyberglove systems [Mingyu].
Fig 8. Sensors for virtual reality [Mingyu]
The real revolution in the field of interfaces has come from virtual reality head mounted displays
(VR HMD), which are becoming popular with users as they provide complete and improved sensory immersion in virtual environments.
There are various interfaces that coexist and facilitate the interactions between the user and the systems.
VR HMDs consist of a small monitor in the shape of or placed in a visor so that it occupies the user’s entire field of vision, or at least ensures that everything the HMD displays is always in the user’s field of vision. Creating the sensation of immersion in an HMD requires a high frame rate (many consecutive images), low latency (so the user has no feeling that their
real actions take time to execute in the virtual world) and high visual quality (providing a sense of reality). The new generation of virtual reality devices, such as Oculus Rift and Vive, offer upscale features that were not available before. However, improvements in the field of vision will still be necessary. The natural human field of vision is 210o, while Oculus Rift has a horizontal field of vision of 80o, and Vive 100o.
The human-machine interface field is spurring the design and introduction of complex systems of interaction [Oulasvirta]. However, recent empirical and conceptual work related to virtual reality and improving the user experience (UX) may not be sufficient to drive disruptive innova- tion in this field [Boletsis]. Therefore, research on the immersive user experience, with the study of empirical problems and the formulation of con- ceptual models to address recent developments, is key to improving the ability to solve problems of human-machine interactions in the virtual reality environment and achieve significant advances in this field. Human-machine interac- tion experts are currently able to implement new designs on the basis of updated VR technology. However, without underpinning these advances in well-consolidated test kits, the results will have a low impact and be unable to solve the problems that currently prevent the widespread use of these technologies. Therefore, the ap-
AC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2018
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Digital Trends in Culture