{"id":3334,"date":"2018-03-31T15:39:48","date_gmt":"2018-03-31T13:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/?p=3334"},"modified":"2018-03-31T15:39:48","modified_gmt":"2018-03-31T13:39:48","slug":"finding-of-the-week-263","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/?p=3334","title":{"rendered":"Finding of the week #263"},"content":{"rendered":"

Input Devices and Immersion
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During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I\u2019ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I\u2019ll share my new science based knowledge with you!<\/em><\/p>\n

This week: This time, I think about how input devices affect the experienced immersion and presence of simulations and virtual environments in general.<\/p>\n

Input devices are critical for the immersive effects of a computer game. Aside from allowing players to efficiently play a game, they can also mimic control devices used in the real world thus achieving a higher degree of realism. For instance, playing a racing simulation using a steering wheel can cause a higher degree of immersion than controlling the virtual racing cars with a keyboard. In addition, using devices that simulate the real world results in a higher naturalness and a higher believability of the simulation.<\/p>\n

This requirement is even more important in the case of Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) that visually excludes a player from the real world and gives the impression of being fully immersed in the virtual environment. IVR often, especially when combined with a simulation of a player’s virtual body, achieves a higher degree of presence than normal desktop simulations. Presence is the feeling of actually being directly inside of the virtual environment and being a part of it. This feeling also depends on the believability of the simulation and the degree to which the control devices feel natural to the users.<\/p>\n

So far, I mostly was a bit put off by the current control devices of the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift as they basically are ergonomically formed game-pads. Often, they felt a bit bulky to me and resulted in some minor irritations that reduced a bit the immersive effects of the IVR simulations. Recently, I had the opportunity to try out some new input devices: the Manus VR<\/a> tracking gloves. These gloves feature orientation sensors and analog sensors measuring the degree to which a user’s fingers are bent. This way, the Manus VR gloves allow for a tracking of the player’s hands and a virtual simulation of them and their current gesture.<\/p>\n

As I tried the gloves for the very first time, I was very impressed as it really felt natural to me to interact with the virtual environment. A first test scene allowed me to grab and throw objects, to adjust levers, and to open and close drawers. Finally, I was no longer required to carry around bulky control devices. Instead, I could interact with the virtual environment like I would do in the real world: simply manipulating objects with my hands. To me, this was an unprecedented feeling and great immersive experience.<\/p>\n

However, this experience also revealed another important requirement for completely believable input devices: haptic feedback. While it felt very believable to grab an object, it was still a bit irritating to have no object in my hands. I had to perform all of these interactions with the help of visual feedback that indicated when I successfully grabbed an object.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, by providing more natural input devices, the immersive effects of virtual environments can greatly be improved. This especially is important when the IVR simulations provide a virtual body that represents the user inside of the virtual environments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Input Devices and Immersion During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I\u2019ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things … Weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finding-of-the-week","category-gaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3334"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3338,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3334\/revisions\/3338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.learning-by-gaming.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}