Sule Serubugo, Denisa Skantarova, Nicolaj Evers, and Martin Kraus won a VRST 2017 Best Demo Award at the 23rd ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST 2017). The demo is also available on Steam as a VR game for HTC Vive called “Sömmad”.

Sule Serubugo, Denisa Skantarova, and Nicolaj Evers are going to present a demo of their Master’s thesis at the 23rd ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST 2017). The demo is also available on Steam as a VR game for HTC Vive called “Sömmad”.

Three student groups from Medialogy Aalborg are publishing four papers at the 6th EAI International Conference: ArtsIT, Interactivity & Game Creation (ArtsIT 2017): “Improving user experience for lost heritage sites through indirect augmented reality” by Mads Luther Nørlem, Christian L. Jakobsen, and Jon B. Larsen; “The Engagement Effect of Players’ Agency over their Characters’ Motivation” by Daniel Svejstrup Christensen and Mette Jakobsen; and “Self-Overlapping Maze and Map Design for Asymmetric Collaboration in Room-Scale Virtual Reality for Public Spaces” and “Facilitating Asymmetric Collaboration in Room-Scale Virtual Reality for Public Spaces” by Sule Serubugo, Denisa Skantarova, and Nicolaj Evers.

A group of students (Nicklas H. Christensen, Oliver G. Hjermitslev, Frederik Falk, Marco B. Madsen, Frederik H. Østergaard) is publishing their 5th semester project at the Academic Mindtrek 2017 conference under the title “Depth Cues in Augmented Reality for Training of Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery”.

Valve announced that the SteamVR tracking will be upgraded soon (https://uploadvr.com/steamvr-tracking-2/). The new tracking base stations will not work with current HMDs, controllers, nor trackers (while new HMDs, controllers, and trackers will work with both, the new and the current base stations).

This means that we probably won’t buy any additional SteamVR HMDs, controllers, nor trackers until the hardware is upgraded. Hopefully, the upgraded trackers are available before the fall semester. All this shouldn’t affect the accessory for wireless communication with the HMD, which we hope to get later this year.

Update 27-06-2017: I’ve read a German online article about the accessory for wireless comunication with the HMD. Apparently, the connection requires an unobstructed line of sight all the time and can be easily interrupted by the user’s hands. The article says nothing about how large the tracking space may be. This probably means that we will buy only one of these accessories and see how that works in our labs.

Also, we ordered the binocular eye tracker for HTC Vive from Pupil Labs.

Update 28-06-2017: And we have received the eye tracker and installed in the right computer in the AVALab (avalab b).

Update 02-07-2017: I was referring to TPCAST’s wireless adapter for the HTC Vive. We might buy Intel’s WiGig adapter instead or also, in particular if HTC is selling and recommending both.

Update 14-11-2017: Due to reports about various problems with TPCAST’s wireless adapter, we will probably not buy one this year.

A paper about their VGIS7 semester project “Pixel Reprojection of 360 Degree Renderings for Small Parallax Effects” by Joakim Bruslund Haurum, Christian Nygaard Daugbjerg, Péter Rohoska, and Andrea Coifman was accepted at Salento AVR 2017. Christian Nygaard Daugbjerg will present the poster at the conference.

Three papers have been accepted at VRIC 2017: two papers by Bartal Henriksen and Ronni Nedergaard Nielsen in collaboration with Bo Geng from the Health Department about their Med8 and Med9 semester projects, and one paper by Jon Byrdal Larsen, Mads Luther Nørlem, and Christian Lebek Jakobsen about their Med7 semester project.

Hello,

I’m currently reading “The VR Book: Human-Centered Design for Virtual Reality” by Jason Jerald. It doesn’t discuss algorithms nor mathematics (apparently there are no equations in this book), instead it presents relevant concepts in perception, health issues with VR, content creation for VR, 3D user interaction, and iterative design for VR experiences. The book is probably going to be one of the standard texts in VR research; thus, I strongly recommend it to anyone working on VR. (I’ve suggested that AUB buys a copy. Once I’ve finished reading it, I’m happy to lend my copy to anyone who is interested in it.)

Martin Kraus

UPDATE 18-09-2016: A copy has arrived at AUB in Langagervej 2.

Apparently, several WordPress blogs on our server (including this one) have been hacked. The problem should be fixed now and additional security measures have been installed. Sorry for any inconvenience.

UPDATE 2015-08-15: Apparently, the WordPress blogs are still compromised and it will probably take a while until the issue has been fixed.

UPDATE 2016-07-07: And this blog is online again; hopefully without the malware.

Kasper Steen Fischer Topp has joined the Graphics Group as an assistant. Initially, he will focus on topics related to virtual reality. Welcome, Kasper!