Week 11

Collaborative Virtual Environment

Introduction

Collaborative virtual environments, also known as CVEs, are used for collaboration and interaction between many people over large distances in a virtual space. This type of VR application has been used for quite some time now. It can go back as early as the 1970s when Multi-User Dimensions were beginning to catch attention.

Collaborative virtual environments are digital landscapes that allow individuals to share information and data in ways that they could have been done before. Virtual environments offer the potential for much flexibility in the way the landscape, data and individuals are represented. Having 3D information can give an individual a much better understanding of some data compared to a 2D representation. 3D information gives better depth and allows the individuals to interact with the data.

Benefits

Collaborative Virtual Environments have many potential benefits in many different fields. CVEs could be used for marketing with potential consumer interaction. It can be used as social entertainment such as multiplayer games. CVE would come in handy in medicine to show a patient a simulation of their surgery. It can also be used in training as well as education. These are some of the many potential ways that CVEs could be used.

Research

There have been many researches done on the potential benefits of Collaborative Virtual Environments and their benefits and I will be going over some of those.

The first research I found was conducted to see the overall effectiveness of CVE based instruction in K-12 or higher education studies. The result of the studies showed that: games show higher learning gains than simulations and virtual worlds. For simulation studies, elaborate explanation type feedback is more suitable for declarative tasks whereas knowledge of correct response is more appropriate for procedural tasks. Students performance is enhanced when they conduct the game play individually than in a group. In addition, we found an inverse relationship between number of treatment sessions learning gains for games (Effectiveness of virtual reality-based instruction on students' learning outcomes in K-12 and higher education: A meta-analysis).

Another study was done to see how effective CVE would be in social skills training for people with autistic spectrum disorders. The research concluded that virtual reality technology may be an ideal tool for allowing participants to practice behaviors in role‐play situations, whilst also providing a safe environment for rule learning and repetition of tasks. Role‐play within virtual environments could promote the mental simulation of social events, potentially allowing a greater insight into minds. Practice of behaviors, both within and across contexts, could also encourage a more flexible approach to social problem solving (The potential of virtual reality in social skills training for people with autistic spectrum disorders).

Finally, one more research I wanted to go over looked into how collaborative virtual environments could be used to plan, discuss, and teach neurosurgical approaches and strategies. The results of this research showed that using CVE on a routine clinical basis and during neurosurgical training courses to collaboratively plan and discuss neurosurgical procedures with 3-D reconstructions of patient-specific magnetic resonance and computed tomographic imaging data or with a virtual model of the temporal bone had a significantly positive impact on the the way neurosurgical approaches could be planned, discussed, and taught. Working collaboratively with the 3-D information of a large, interactive, stereoscopic projection provides an unambiguous way to analyze and understand the anatomic spatial relationships of different surgical corridors (A Collaborative Virtual Reality Environment for Neurosurgical Planning and Training).

From these three researches we can see why CVEs are used and why this approach to virtual reality is the best way to utilize for the future.

Examples

Holoportation

Holoportation is a new technology that is being developed by Microsoft. It is a 3D capture technology which is the first of its kind. Holoportation allows high definition 3D models of people to be created and transmitted in real time around the world. Holoportation uses HoloLens for their augmented reality headset. This allows the users to see, hear and interact with other users that may be located in other parts of the world. In addition to the HoloLens, a special camera rig is also required to transmit the hologram of the person making it possible for you to feel that the person is actually present in the room. The only thing missing according to Microsoft is the sense of smell and physical touch. The headset basically creates a hologram of the person in the middle of your field of view. It will look as if the person is floating or standing in the space around you. Holoportation allows users to have real time conversations with people. It allows the user the ability to record them and play them back in the same manner you saw it. However, one potential drawback is that the playback reduces the size so that you can view the interaction in a more comfortable size and bring to your table where you can watch it comfortably as you take a seat on your couch. Microsoft currently sells a development kit which will be made available for $3000.

Second Life

Second Life is an online virtual world, developed in 2003. The virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab's own client programs or via alternative third-party viewers. Second Life users, also called residents, create virtual representations of themselves, called avatars, and are able to interact with places, objects and other avatars. They can explore the world, meet other residents, socialize, participate in both individual and group activities, build, create, shop, and trade virtual property and services with one another.

There has been a lot of research done on Second Life (SL) as well Much of the published research conducted in Second Life is associated with education and learning. One such study tested the usefulness of SL as an action learning environment in a senior course for management information systems students. Another presented a case study in which university students were tasked with building an interactive learning experience using SL as a platform. There have also been healthcare related studies done of SL residents. Studies show that behaviors from virtual worlds can translate to the real world. One survey suggests that users are engaged in a range of health-related activities in SL which are potentially impacting real-life behaviors. Another focus of SL research has included the relationship of avatars or virtual personas to the 'real' or actual person. These studies have included research into social behavior and reported two main implications. The first is that SL virtual selves shape users' offline attitudes and behavior. The research indicated that virtual lives and physical lives are not independent, and our appearances and actions have both online and offline consequences. The second deals with experimental research and supports the idea that virtual environments, such as SL, can enable research programs in that people behave in a relatively natural spread of behavioral patterns. The SL avatar-self relationship was also studied via resident interviews, and various enactments of the avatar-self relationship were identified. The study concluded that SL residents enacted multiple avatar-self relationships and cycled through them in quick succession, suggesting that these avatar-self relationships might be shaped and activated strategically in order to achieve the desired educational, commercial, or therapeutic outcomes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Collaborative Virtual Environments have have come a long way since the 1970s. The technology now a days allows for the user to get a much richer experience. Mainly due to higher bandwidths and better processing powers. CVE makes a great tool when it comes to learning. As many studies have shown, CVE can be a great tool to learn and process new data.

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