Virtual Reality Responsive Workbench: Applications and Experiences

摘要

Virtual Reality (VR) is a complex and challenging field Earnshaw and Rosenblum, 1995; Rosenblum and Cross, 1997, and several distinct types of systems have been developed for displaying and interacting with virtual environments. One of the newest is the Virtual Reality Responsive Workbench Kreuger and Froehlich, 1994; Kreuger et al., 1995; Rosenblum, Bryson, and Feiner, 1995. The Workbench is an interactive VR environment designed to support a team of end users such as military and civilian command and control specialists, designers, engineers, and doctors. The Virtual Workbench creates a match for the 'real' work environment of persons who would typically stand over a table or a workbench as part of their professional routine. For example, the Workbench could be used to represent fluid flow over a ship's hull while supporting a design team in interactive visualization. Perhaps the greatest strength of the VR Responsive Workbench is the ease of natural interaction with virtual objects. Current interactive methods emphasize gesture recognition, speech recognition, and a simulated 'laser' pointer to identify and manipulate objects. This paper classifies VR systems into three categories: immersive head- mounted displays (HMDs), immersive non-HMD systems, and partially immersive tabletop systems. We discuss the utility of each classification. Several applications that we have developed in the Virtual Reality Laboratory of the Information Technology Division (ITD), Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) are examined, and we discuss our experiences with VR Responsive Workbench interfaces and software architecture.