Virtuaalreaalsus 2024/25 kevad

Remark: There are three Oculus 3S available that might make sense with any project that deals with AR or passthrough (or something power-hungry). Let us know if your project would prefer this model, and we will organize it.

• Education in VR - Help building something like Halcydonia Interactive:

Perhaps, you have read Ready Player One, you have seen more than a dystopian world in it and admired the non-profit Halcydonia Interactive and the magical kingdom of Halcydonia or the teaching planet Ludus in it? Do you like education or teaching? We can then prove together that some educational dreams, like making education available to the masses, teaching during pandemics, and actually enjoyably, is possible. There are several possibilities to develop small teaching modules in VR from math, sports, and the arts, via chemistry and biology to computer science. We have to look at existing and self-developed modules, evaluate them, and then build a platform, which makes it easy to develop more content. If a full platform is a slightly too big task for your project, we can help divide the work in smaller chunks so you can develop one part of it, and other parts are distributed to other teams and students.

• Reading in VR:

One of the preconditions for a decent education and long-term learning commitment is the ability to read in VR. Reading on e-ink has been the go-to solution in the real world to consume written material in a digitized form and replaced reading (at least) fiction in digital format. How can something like this be achieved in VR?

In this work, you should explore how text can be displayed in an easily readable and intuitive form and an enjoyable environment in VR and maybe even build or integrate an epub-based reader that allows you to evaluate how written text and corresponding images (perhaps even cartoons) can be consumed best in this new medium. However, you can also focus on and create the best reading environments (dim light in the library, big books with huge pages).

• Stereo Vision Exploration:

You will be surprised to know, but Ulno can actually not see 3D in real life - only sometimes in VR, he manages. He has a condition called "alternating vision" (a light form of strabismus), which allows his brain to use only the image of one eye. Some Kickstarters for early VR developed apps to train stereo vision, but they have been patented, don't work in many cases, and are prohibitively expensive. Here, you could work on building a vision self-experimentation platform for VR to interactively change vision parameters, like contrast, brightness, and color on each eye, inter-pupillary distance, objects in scene (static, animated, abstract), and maybe have options to mark good or bad combinations.

If time allows or more students want to work on this topic, an external connection for a trainer or medical professional could be interesting.

• Vision Explorer:

Allow people to see like Ulno (see task above). Allow people to get funny effects with their vision (like alternating vision, blur one eye, apply colors or dimming to one or both eyes, decreasing framerate).

• VR Office:

The Oculus Quest 2 has a processor that is much more powerful than some commonly available Chromebooks or even dual-core x86 PCs (and the Quest 3S is even more powerful). Web browsers run smoothly, and even 2D standalone Android apps can be run on the Quest. In this topic, these options should be explored, as well as running desktop, office-like environment, or game engines to create a productive, self-contained work environment. Also, explore and consider the possibility of developing code inside VR.

• Affordable VR Development for All:

As you might have experienced in the Game Engines class, there are mainly three notable platforms that are used today for building games: Unity, Unreal Engine, and Godot. The latter is open source and, therefore of special interest in the teaching context. In this topic, we would like to see differences in getting started to develop small demo apps for VR in Godot vs. other platforms.

• Programming and Development in VR - Or, how do we do Scrum in VR?

We are the masters of understanding development processes in Software Engineering, aren't we? Some methods from agile development should transfer and benefit very well when being executed in VR. Let's study that, try it out, and compare with the existing (physical - or teams/zoom) ways.

This project could heavily influence the way, we develop software but also design and execute projects in teams in the future.

• VR Co-Working:

Of course, there could be other work carried out well in VR apart from programming (see previous topic). Design processes, study work, hiring interviews, and many more non-game-related content could benefit from good VR environments. In this project, you will go beyond actual software development processes and look at the social benefits of transferring physical team processes into VR.

You are asked here to build and define actual VR environments to peer program, design, and teach in VR.

• VR Building Monitor and Controller:

The life data of all automation of our Delta building is available to us as well as a 3D model of it. Let's visualize the building data in VR and think about new ways of interaction and analysis that we can achieve with the use of VR in this project.

Finally, we can use holograms to interact with the physical environment - maybe we can even think about 3D visual programming environments (analog to Node-Red) in this context?

• Pervasive AR Multiplayer Tag Games:

Use the passthrough functionality of current headsets like the Quest 3S to build massive multiplayer pervasive games.

Employ some tags that can be scanned to turn physical into virtual props, upgrades, or vision impairments. These games could be played with several players wearing headsets in the same game space.

• Complex Data Visualization in VR:

Lots of research areas produce tons of (sometimes) spatial data that could be better visualized in 3D than in 2D. This topic should give you space to develop viewers for VR for easier visualization of complex data. A potential case here could be data from a computer tomography scan, but even visualizing classic 2D data in new ways in 3D would be very worth exploring. This could become the Graphana for VR.

• Teleoperation in VR:

Our autonomous driving lab is involved in studying teleoperation. This is done nowadays mainly in 2D.

When we train our toy cars, we run next to them and try to use awkward joysticks to teach the cars how to drive. Couldn't VR help us do both better? Yes, there will be problems with connectivity and latency, but both are very worth studying. We can even solve latency problems by predicting the future (with heuristics or machine learning) a bit. I am already looking forward to allowing people to shrink into a toy car and see how they will drive in it. We do have a small prototype in Godot 4.1, but in general, making easy streaming (also Desktop) work in any game engine, would help this project (see also the desktop streaming requirement in teaching projects below).

You could also explore options for real (i.e. full sized) car teleoperation in VR. Or maybe simply design a mock-up of a driver's VR environment, keeping in mind the necessary views and comfort that the driver is expected to have. There are some good and bad examples out there if you search - try to find out what is good and usable.

• Toddlerterror VR:

You are a small kid sitting in a kid's chair and terrorize your parents with throwing everything around, mixing food, painting the apartment - some parents would love the perspective change game.

• Single User Desktop Work Environment in VR:

Create a single user work environment in VR where at least one self-made virtual environment, a desk, one screen and a passthrough-visible physical keyboard is usable. The virtual environment can be designed or photo-captured (does not have to be a 360 camera capture). The screen in VR needs to stream the user's PC screen view. One example use case could be that a user works in his/her PC, then puts on a headset for maximum focus, and continues working in VR. The work/study includes reading from the screen in VR and typing on the visible physical keyboard. It is allowed to use also existing VR platforms for multi-user world building, but they have to be personalized in a reasonable amount.

• Multi-user Work Environment in VR:

Create a multi-user work environment in VR where at least one self-made virtual environment, a desk, one screen, a simple user avatar, and a passthrough-visible keyboard is usable. The virtual environment can be designed or photo-captured (does not have to be a 360 camera capture). The screen in VR needs to stream the user's PC screen view and have a working screen share option. One example use case could be that two users work in their individual PC on some mutual project, then put on their headsets and connect/meet in VR where they use also screen sharing option (one at a time, not simultaneously) to continue work together (e.g. in an online document, code editor, blueprint etc.). The voice of every user needs to be possible to hear for all other users in VR. It is allowed to use also existing VR platforms for multi-user world building, but they have to be personalized in a reasonable amount.

• Virtual Classroom 2006:

Create a virtual 2006 classroom using a photo-capture of the real classroom. The VR classroom needs to at least have the same sitting places as in the reality, two large screens in front of the class where one PC screen can be streamed (e.g. teacher's). The voice of every user needs to be possible to hear for all others in the VR classroom. One example use case could be that the VR course students join one study session in VR instead of physically coming on site and they are able to follow the teacher's vocal and visual presentation. It is allowed to use also existing VR platforms for multi-user world-building, but they have to be personalized in a reasonable amount.

• Relaxing Environment in VR:

Create a relaxing environment in VR where a user can take a break from stressful work, study, etc. The environment can be a fully fantasized unrealistic place, a beautiful nature place, a favorite place from your childhood or any other place where you would go for a small moment (e.g. ~10 min) to calm down when a workday or school or anything else has made you feel stressed or anxious. It can be drawn, created in any of your preferred game engines, photo-captured or a combination of them. Try to experiment with visuals combined with sounds. Try to learn about calming interactions vs exciting ones. Try to list the target emotions as detailed as you see relevant and see how the implementation matches the expectations. Consider including breathing guidance which can have a notable impact on relaxation. Would you add some kind of biofeedback? Share what you learned and explain what you implemented.

• Hot-Air Balloon Simulation:

Inspired by examples seen in the lab? Maybe create your own version with some real-world gimmicks like wind (use a fan?), platform (use a pillow? sports balance equipment?) and consider limited space.