Thesis in progress
Group : Human-Centered Computing
Spatial consistency between real and virtual workspaces for individual and collaborative tasks in virtual environments
Starts on 01/10/2017
Advisor : FLEURY, Cédric
Funding : Contrat doctoral uniquement recherche
Affiliation : Université Paris-Saclay
Laboratory : LRI - HCC
Defended on 16/12/2021, committee :
Directeur de thèse :
- Patrick Bourdot, Directeur de recherche, Université Paris-Saclay, GS Informatique et science du numérique, France
Co-directeur de thèse :
- Cédric Fleury, Maître de conférences, Université Paris-Saclay, GS Informatique et science du numérique, France
Rapporteurs :
- Victoria Interrante, Professor, University of Minnesota, United States
- Thierry Duval, Professeur, IMT Atlantique, Bretagne-Pays de la Loire, France
Examinateurs :
- Daniel Mestre, Directeur de recherche, Université Aix-Marseille, France
- Weiya Chen, Assistant professor, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
- Ferran Argelaguet, Chargé de recherche, Hybrid team, Rennes, France
- Nicolas Sabouret, Professeur, Université Paris-Saclay, GS Informatique et science du numérique, France
Research activities :
Abstract :
A number of virtual reality (VR) applications rely on a one-to-one mapping of the user's position between real and virtual environments. This spatial consistency is mandatory for maximizing the virtual workspace accessible by physical movements in the real world. It is also required for tangible interaction and co-located interaction in complex collaborative tasks. However, the user's individual navigation may break the spatial consistency. To prevent this issue, navigation in large-scale virtual environments is usually excluded, and use-case scenarios are divided into a set of virtual experiences.
The research focus of this Ph.D. thesis is to allow users to explore a large-scale virtual environment and recover spatial consistency in some appropriate areas of the virtual environment when necessary to complete the task. The main contribution is a general solution to recover spatial consistency for teleportation. This navigation technique is one of the most commonly used in VR applications, and it has been shown that its instant transition displacement principle reduces simulator sickness. My dissertation explores different techniques to recover spatial consistency in several VR systems (CAVE vs. HMD) and interactive contexts (individual interaction, tangible situation, and co-localized collaboration). It also presents experimental results that validate these techniques. First, I studied two interactive techniques that can help users to maximize the use of their physical workspace within specific areas of the virtual environment predefined by application designers. These techniques are suitable for virtual reality systems with previously known shapes and sizes, such as CAVE-like systems. Then, I proposed two more generic solutions for a wider range of VR systems, including HMDs. Conversely to the prior approach, these solutions allow users to position their physical workspace in the virtual environment. Next, I investigated how to recover the spatial consistency by aligning the position of a real-world object with its virtual counterpart during teleportation, in order to allow a tangible interaction with this object. Finally, I designed two strategies to allow pairs of users to manage and recover the spatial consistency for co-located interaction in complex collaborative tasks.
