VRception: Rapid Prototyping of Cross-Reality Systems in Virtual Reality

Title of the Paper

VRception: Rapid Prototyping of Cross-Reality Systems in Virtual Reality

Paper Information

• Domain: Virtual Reality (VR) and Cross-Reality System Interaction
• Keywords: Prototyping, Cross-Reality Systems, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Transition Interfaces, Collaborative Interaction, Mixed Reality Toolkit

Research Background and Issues

• Problems and Challenges:

  • Cross-Reality systems enable users to transition along the Reality-Virtuality Continuum or collaborate with users utilizing systems of varying degrees of virtualization. However, developing these systems requires complex technical skills, significant time investment, and expensive hardware support.
  • Current hardware prototyping is costly and has numerous limitations (e.g., weight, stability), while technical requirements like calibration raise the entry barrier for research and development.
  • The lack of rapid and low-cost prototyping tools restricts accessibility and efficiency in this research field.

• Significance:

  • Cross-Reality systems enhance the connectivity between virtual and real-world interactions, improving user experience and collaboration.
  • Providing affordable and rapid prototyping tools would make the research field more accessible to scholars and developers with limited resources or technical expertise, fostering innovation in this domain.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Existing design tools (e.g., Unity, Unreal Engine) require advanced 3D programming skills, posing significant challenges for non-technical users.
  • Virtual reality has been utilized to study physical objects and analyze user behavior, but research often focuses on single-layer virtual-real interaction, neglecting the multi-layered support required for Cross-Reality design and experimentation.

Solution

• Methods and Solutions:

  • Introduced the concept of VRception: simulating the entire Reality-Virtuality Continuum within VR to enable rapid prototyping of Cross-Reality systems through software.
  • Developed the VRception Toolkit, which provides two prototyping environments:
    1. A WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor within VR, requiring no hardware or coding expertise from users.
    2. A Unity 3D environment supporting advanced feature customization.

• Innovations:

  • Simulated transitions from reality to virtual environments within VR, eliminating hardware calibration and physical constraints.
  • Supported multi-user and remote collaboration, allowing users to design synchronously and experience transition interfaces in real time.
  • Introduced an extensible object library (e.g., monitors, projectors, 3D shapes), offering researchers flexibility.

• Implementation Steps and Techniques:

  1. Within the VR environment, users select virtual objects through the interface and configure their position, size, and interaction behavior.
  2. Provided a "Reality-Virtual Slider" feature to dynamically adjust the transition degree between reality and virtuality.
  3. Offered Unity scripts enabling developers to extend the toolkit's functionality and add new prototype objects.
  4. Supported remote collaboration and repeated experiments via network synchronization, voice communication, and replay features.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Results:

  • Successfully simulated and re-implemented six Cross-Reality system research prototypes, including various interaction methods such as monitors and projectors.
  • Users were able to complete Cross-Reality system prototypes in an average of less than 8 minutes using the VRception Toolkit.
  • Experts and developers acknowledged the toolkit's ability to replicate core functions of existing systems and significantly improve prototype iteration speed.

• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  • Eliminated the complexity of physical hardware prototyping, reducing dependency on hardware and calibration.
  • Provided a low-cost, rapid, and scalable research platform.
  • Supported multi-user collaboration and remote design within VR, which was rarely seen in previous systems.

• Experimental and Evaluation Results:

  • Expert interviews and the re-implementation process validated the toolkit's functionality.
  • In design workshops, participants quickly learned and completed tasks, with positive feedback on the toolkit's usability (SUS score of 76.6, categorized as "Good").

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Simulating reality within VR may still differ from real-world environments, including the absence of haptic feedback and inaccuracies from scanning real objects.
  • The current asset library is limited, primarily focusing on monitors and projectors, requiring expansion to support more diverse prototype design elements.
  • Further research is needed to investigate the validity transfer of experimental results obtained using the toolkit to real-world environments.