Immersive flight for surveillance applications

Abstract

In this paper , we present a VR-based first-person view paradigm applied to a tele-surveillance application. Using an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV), we have developed an intuitive tangible interface between the pilot and his airship (blimp). The idea is to make transparent the manipulation of an embedded camera by controlling it instinctively with the head's movement so that the user is available for other tasks such as piloting the blimp. IN other words, the user becomes part of the interface. Using the same paradigm for sensing real-time acquired sensor data, a vibro-tactile belt worn by the user will indicate the resistance offered by the wind and thus will increase the feeling of telepresence. The results of our experience show that our system is reliable and enhances the situational awareness of the pilot.CR Categories: I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and RealismVirtual Reality Keywords: Telepresence, tele-operation, Head-Mounted Display, surveillance, haptic interface. INTRODUCTIONAerial surveillance is a fast-growing topic in the commercial and research field. Indeed, many "security sensitive" events such as olympic games are now fully monitored by drones, helicopters or blimps. Aerial surveillance offers the best point of view to ensure maximum visibility while giving an outline of the general situation. Other possible applications include search and rescue operations, environmental surveillance and modeling and traffic monitoring. Furthermore, compared to airplanes, blimps are able to hover in a stationary position, which is a primordial capability for many monitoring applications. They produce very low noise, turbulences and internal vibrations, generate low operational costs and have a long endurance. In addition, blimps are the safest UAVs: even if the blimp is perforated, it doesn't represent a potential danger for the surrounding people. Thus, blimps seem to be the perfect platform for aerial observation. In many cases, monitoring missions require the blimp to carry at least a pilot and a copilot. Hence, it has a substantial incidence on the fixed and operational costs. For these reasons, we have opted for an unmanned airship, entirely controlled by only one person on the ground. In this paper, blimps are considered as a natural extension of our selves. They let us wander and observe in a first-person view.* e-mail: Xavier.Righetti@epfl.ch † e-mail: Sylvain.Cardin@epfl.ch ‡ e-mail: Daniel.Thalmann@epfl.ch § e-mail: Frederic.Vexo@epfl.ch Moreover, this increasing amount of input and output data passing from the blimp to the user urges us to elaborate new custom interfaces of communication so that no information may be neglected or misunderstood. This is especially true in our case where we often deal with delicate operations such as the piloting of the blimp without direct visual contact.Next chapter will review previous works published in this field of research. Our system will be tackled in Section 3 by describing the interaction paradigms. PREVIOUS WORKSIn [3], Alberto Elfes et al. categori...

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