BlenderVR: Open-source framework for interactive and immersive VR

Katz, Brian F. G.; Felinto, Dalai; Touraine, Damien; Poirier-Quinot, David; Bourdot, Patrick

doi:10.1109/vr.2015.7223366

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Frameworks that support the development of interactive systems often provide an integration of different components or modules. Each component or module handles the diverse functionalities of the application such as input, tracking and networking and these can be combined in customized ways for different context . These frameworks usually follow the composition over inheritance principle in object‐oriented programming, in which classes should be polymorphic and reusable by containing instances of other classes for desired functionality, to allow developers to extend the functionality.…”

Section: Vr‐rides Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

VR‐Rides: An object‐oriented application framework for immersive virtual reality exergames

et al. 2020

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Exercise can improve health and well-being. With this in mind, immersive virtual reality (VR) games are being developed to promote physical activity, and are generally evaluated through user studies. However, building such applications is time consuming and expensive. This paper introduces VR-Rides, an object-oriented application framework focused on the development of experiment-oriented VR exergames. Following the modular programming pattern, this framework facilitates the integration of different hardware (such as VR devices, sensors, and physical activity devices) within immersive VR experiences that overlay game narratives on Google Street View panoramas. Combining software engineering and interaction patterns, modules of VR-Rides can be easily added and managed in the Unity game engine. We evaluate the code efficiency and development effort across our VR exergames developed using VR-Rides. The reliability, maintainability, and usability of our framework are also demonstrated via code metrics analysis and user studies. The results show that investing in a systematic approach to reusing code and design can be a worthwhile effort for researchers beyond software engineering. K E Y W O R D Scode reuse, exergame, immersive virtual reality, object-oriented application framework, reusable component, Unity INTRODUCTIONVirtual reality (VR) software applications are useful tools for human-computer interaction (HCI) studies that require users to be immersed in a controlled environment. There are an increasing number of freely available software tools, plug-ins, programming libraries, and packages that employ recent advances in VR for use by the HCI research community. One such example is VR exercise video games (exergames), with different VR exergames used in physical education classes, 1,2 physical health in older adults, 3,4 and physical rehabilitation and therapy. 5,6 These applications are expected to be employed, integrated and improved by researchers and developers in their HCI projects, thus reducing the time, effort, and cost for creating customized applications. But the commercial VR systems, generally games, used are not systematically engineered to be adapted by researchers or to run research studies. For example, VR systems and games focus primarily on enhancing the immersion and enjoyment of user wearing the head-mounted display (HMD), which ignores the collaboration of non-HMD user. In order to study the interaction in collaborative VR, Gugenheimer et al 7 built a system with VR platform, projectors, gamepad, and Softw: Pract Exper. 2020;50:1305-1324.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/spe

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Section: Vr‐rides Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

VR‐Rides: An object‐oriented application framework for immersive virtual reality exergames

et al. 2020

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“…Three of them were used to render the projection itself, while the fourth was used for monitoring. BlenderVR software [30] was used to control the simulation, paired with a VICON motion capture system. VICON reflective tracking points were placed on a set of headphones worn by participants.…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Noise Emitted by Vehicles on Pedestrian Crossing Decision-Making: A Study in a Virtual Environment

et al. 2020

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When crossing a road, pedestrians must detect traffic, combine data coming from different perceptual modalities, evaluate the time envelope for safely cross the street, and monitor the position of oncoming vehicles to perform corrective actions if needed. This study analyzed the influence of noise emitted by vehicles, or its absence, on pedestrians’ crossing decision-making. Experiments were performed in a virtual environment using two road scenarios. Participants were presented with stimuli of approaching vehicles that varied regarding speed, movement patterns, and auditory condition: one concerning the approaching of an electric vehicle, another regarding the approaching of a gasoline combustion vehicle, and, finally, a condition regarding the absence of auditory cues. Participants were tasked with indicating the moment when they decided to cross the street. The results show that, despite the noise variations caused by the type of vehicle and its speed pattern, the participants’ decision to cross was mostly based on vehicle distance. When a vehicle approaches the crosswalk from a short distance and with no occlusion to the pedestrian’s visibility, the sound does not seem to influence the pedestrians’ crossing decision-making.

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“…Following the growing advancements in computer graphics, virtual reality (VR) is becoming more accessible and affordable. BlenderVR [ 56 ] is an open-source framework that extends Blender and allows it to produce immersive and realistic simulations. Since OpenSHS is based on Blender, one of our future goals is to investigate the incorporation of BlenderVR into our tool to provide more true to life experiences for the smart home simulation and visualisation.…”

Section: Future Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

OpenSHS: Open Smart Home Simulator

Alshammari

Sedky

et al. 2017

Sensors

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This paper develops a new hybrid, open-source, cross-platform 3D smart home simulator, OpenSHS, for dataset generation. OpenSHS offers an opportunity for researchers in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning to test and evaluate their models. Following a hybrid approach, OpenSHS combines advantages from both interactive and model-based approaches. This approach reduces the time and efforts required to generate simulated smart home datasets. We have designed a replication algorithm for extending and expanding a dataset. A small sample dataset produced, by OpenSHS, can be extended without affecting the logical order of the events. The replication provides a solution for generating large representative smart home datasets. We have built an extensible library of smart devices that facilitates the simulation of current and future smart home environments. Our tool divides the dataset generation process into three distinct phases: first design: the researcher designs the initial virtual environment by building the home, importing smart devices and creating contexts; second, simulation: the participant simulates his/her context-specific events; and third, aggregation: the researcher applies the replication algorithm to generate the final dataset. We conducted a study to assess the ease of use of our tool on the System Usability Scale (SUS).

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BlenderVR: Open-source framework for interactive and immersive VR

Cited by 13 publications

References 2 publications

VR‐Rides: An object‐oriented application framework for immersive virtual reality exergames

VR‐Rides: An object‐oriented application framework for immersive virtual reality exergames

The Influence of Noise Emitted by Vehicles on Pedestrian Crossing Decision-Making: A Study in a Virtual Environment

OpenSHS: Open Smart Home Simulator

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