VIRTUAL REALITY AND ENVIRONMENTS Edited by Cecília Sík Lányi           Virtual Reality and Environments Edited by Cecília Sík Lányi Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Jana Sertic Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer InTech Design Team First published April, 2012 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechopen.com Virtual Reality and Environments, Edited by Cecília Sík Lányi p. cm. ISBN 978-953-51-0579-4    Contents  Preface IX Chapter 1 Virtual Environments in Physical Therapy 1 Felix O. Akinladejo Chapter 2 A Survey of Some Virtual Reality Tools and Resources 21 Moses Okechukwu Onyesolu, Ignatius Ezeani and Obikwelu Raphael Okonkwo Chapter 3 Training of Procedural Tasks Through the Use of Virtual Reality and Direct Aids 43 Jorge Rodríguez, Teresa Gutiérrez, Emilio J. Sánchez, Sara Casado and Iker Aguinaga Chapter 4 The Users’ Avatars Nonverbal Interaction in Collaborative Virtual Environments for Learning 69 Adriana Peña Pérez Negrón, Raúl A. Aguilar and Luis A. Casillas Chapter 5 ROTATOR Model: A Framework for Building Collaborative Virtual Workspaces 95 Charles J. Lesko Jr, Christine R. Russell and Yolanda A. Hollingsworth Chapter 6 Optical Touch Screen and Its Application as a Next Generation Classroom Response System 117 Hong Zhang Chapter 7 Personalization of Virtual Environments Navigation and Tasks for Neurorehabilitation 135 Dani Tost, Sergi Grau and Sergio Moya Chapter 8 Vision for Motor Performance in Virtual Environments Across the Lifespan 151 Patrick Grabowski and Andrea Mason VI Contents Chapter 9 Ergonomics Design Criteria of a Virtual Environment 171 Zahari Taha, Hartomo Soewardi, Siti Zawiah and Aznijar Ahmad-Yazid Chapter 10 The Virtual Reality of Work – How to Create a Workplace that Enhances Well-Being for a Mobile Employee 193 Ursula Hyrkkänen, Suvi Nenonen and Inka Kojo    Preface  Virtual Reality is clearly interdisciplinary research area. It has, not only Information Technology importance but social, educational, economical importance too. It combines multiple disciplines for the development of virtual reality systems in which the user has the immersive feeling of being in the real world. Virtual reality has several applications in almost all fields of real life. The most typical fields for the application of virtual reality are health-care, engineering and game industry. The objective of this book is to provide new knowledge to the readers. The reviews in this book describe the latest Virtual Reality-related knowledge in three fields: virtual reality tools, virtual reality in education and rehabilitation and ergonomic design. The chapters selected for this volume offer new perspectives in terms, tested practices and solutions. Our book may be a solid basis for the novice and advanced engineers who would like to develop user friendly Virtual Environments for education, rehabilitation and other applications of Virtual Reality. The main features of this book can be summarised as follows: 1. The book describes and evaluates the current state-of-the-art in the virtual reality field. 2. It also presents several applications of Virtual Reality in the field of Immersive and non-Immersive Virtual Environments, Educations, Collaborative work, Ergonomic design, and Neurorehabilitation. Last but not least, it introduces the commonly used Virtual Reality hardware and software. 3. The contributors of this book are the leading researchers from Academia and practitioners from the industry. This book provides a resource for wide variety of people including academicians, designers, developers, educators, engineers, practitioners, researchers, and graduate students. We would like to thank the authors for their contributions. Without their expertise and effort, this book would never be born. InTech editors and staff also deserve our sincere recognition for their support throughout the project. X Preface Finally the editor would like to thank her husband Ferenc Sik, her sons András Sik and Gergely Sik for their patience and Professor Janos Schanda, the Head of the Editor’s Laboratory for his wise advices.  Dr. Cecília Sík Lányi Associate professor at the University of Pannonia, Veszprem, Hungary [...]... 1 Virtual Environments in Physical Therapy Felix O Akinladejo University of Technology, Jamaica, West Indies 1 Introduction This chapter examines virtual environments which usually represent computer simulated environments, otherwise called virtual worlds or virtual reality and its application in physical therapy Virtual environments present computer-generated... Virtual Reality and Environments In another view, some researchers like Strickland, Hodges, North and Weghorst (1997) describe virtual environments as computer presence and feel of another place with tracking of what the person does in this imaginary scene They argued that when the headsets are used to remove the real background of the user, the mind is fooled and the senses are made to accept as reality. .. patient improved in fractionation and range of motion of his thumb and fingers The third patient made the greatest gains as that patient was reported to have gained improvements in the range of motion and strength of the thumb, velocity of the thumb and fingers, and fractionation 4 Virtual Reality and Environments These evidences showed the usefulness of virtual environments for rehabilitation therapy... as well as in the imaginary world Users mainly interact with virtual environments using virtual reality headsets Many of the current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences display either on a computer screens or through other stereoscopic displays Applications of virtual environments are mainly focused on artificial reality that projects users into a 3D space generated by the... Some of these companies and software tools are provided in section 3 and section 5 22 Virtual Reality and Environments 2 Virtual reality technology VR technology enables users to immerse themselves in an artificial environment simulated by a computer, with the ability to navigate through the environment and interact with objects in it Two keywords in the field of VR are presence and immersion VR immerses... capabilities using the Virtual Reality Mark-up Language (VRML), and the ability to extend healthcare’s reach has been advocated (Plant, 1996) 3 Forms of virtual environments Virtual environments are generally classified by the degree of immersion it provides through level of user interactivity, image complexity, stereoscopic view, field of regard and the update rate of display A careful and complex combination... illumination of the display are critical factors Fig 2 Virtual Reality Headsets 3.2 Non-immersive environments or desktop systems These are the least immersive implementation of virtual simulation techniques With Personal Computers on the desks, the virtual environment is created through a portal or 6 Virtual Reality and Environments window by utilising a standard high resolution monitor Users interact with the... between users as this technology develops Virtual environments applications continue to grow Developers are coming out with new technologies that can simulate effects such as wind, vibration and lightning to enrich the virtual environment for a true model of reality Virtual environments are being successfully used for applications such as driving and flight simulators and we are now witnessing some entertainment... to justify or not research efforts in virtual environments 8 Virtual Reality and Environments applications as alternative intervention techniques for motor rehabilitation for researchers and clinicians involved in rehabilitation engineering The study specifically focused on the effect of using virtual environment to improve ambulatory function in stroke patients, and investigated whether the skills gained... windows are of different sizes and the ‘paint brush’ has varying sized tips These pose challenges in terms of the time and effort required to cover the windows For example, TDL 1 has a wider window size and a thicker paintb\rush, while TDL 4 has a smaller window size and a thinner paintbrush 12 Virtual Reality and Environments Fig 6 The patient views this window in the virtual environment using the . Code. Virtual Reality and Environments 2 In another view, some researchers like Strickland, Hodges, North and Weghorst (1997) describe virtual environments as computer presence and feel. of motion and strength of the thumb, velocity of the thumb and fingers, and fractionation. Virtual Reality and Environments 4 These evidences showed the usefulness of virtual environments. VIRTUAL REALITY AND ENVIRONMENTS Edited by Cecília Sík Lányi           Virtual Reality and Environments Edited by Cecília Sík Lányi