In this section we describe the different equipment used by the IVE Lab.
Head Mounted Displays
In order to immerse individuals within a 3D virtual environment, we use head mounted display technology. The devices are placed on the participant's head so that two screens are positioned in front of the eyes, one screen for each eye. The visual disparity between the two visual screens enables the perception of a 3D virtual environment. As this is the core feature of presenting a virtual environment to the user, we are acquiring numerous head mounted displays for the different research projects.
Motion analysis
The devices allow for the recording of physical body movements and can be used to create correspondence between a physical and visual virtual action. The equipment is necessary for creating virtual avatar movements. There are a number of different motion analysis systems that are used in the IVE lab. These are described below.
5DT data gloves.
The 5DT data gloves allow for the recording of individual finger movements in each hand. The gloves contain flexible sticks on each of the finger and the thumbs that can be bended. The motion analysis records the amount of bending that occurs for each digit when a participant performs actions (for example grasping). The recordings are used to control the individual digits of the virtual presented hands so that physical hand actions correspond to the visual virtual presentations.
--> You can visit the 5DT website by clicking here.
Polhemus liberty motion trackers (wired and wireless).
The Polhemus liberty motion analysis system is used to record body action coordinates, for example, limb position. The recordings are implemented into a virtual avatar that adopts the same movements and body postures that the real person is performing, providing correspondence between the physically performed actions and the visual virtual actions in the virtual environment. The trackers work by a reference source that emits a magnetic field and different sensors that capture their position in space relative to the position of the magnetic field source. Each sensors records 3D coordinates (X, Y, Z) and three different orientation angles (azimuth, elevation and roll) 240 times a second. These recordings are integrated into the virtual reality software and allow animations of movement in the virtual avatars.
--> You can visit the polhemus website by clicking here.