The objective of this paper is to test the hypothesis that immersive virtual reality environments such as those achievable through the head-mounted displays, enhance task performance in online engineering design activities. In this paper, task performance is measured by the time to complete a given engineering activity. Over the last decade, a wide range of virtual reality applications have bee...

Many virtual reality researchers consider exact head registration and an exact multi-sensory alignment between real world and virtual objects to be a critical factor for ef-fective motor performance in a virtual environment. Calibration procedures for head-mounted displays, however, can be error prone, time consuming and sometimes im-practical to perform. To better understand th...

Mixed reality (MR) research aims to develop technologies that inputting or mixing the real world objects into computer generated three dimensional (3D) virtual space. The mixed reality, including augmented reality (AR) and augmented virtuality (AV), produces an environment in which the real objects are superimposed on user’s view of the virtual environment or the virtual objects are superimpose...

Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) allow users to experience virtual reality with a great level of immersion. However, even simple physical tasks like drinking a beverage can be difficult and awkward while in a virtual reality experience. We explore mixed reality renderings that selectively incorporate the physical world into the virtual world for interactions with physical objects. We conducted a us...

This work presents the design and set-up of a virtual reality driving simulator for development and evaluation of future automotive HMI concepts. The Oculus Rift based virtual reality driving simulation described in this work is an immersive 3D virtual reality simulator, which gives the driver a near-realistic driving experience. Oculus Rift is a low-latency 360° head tracking virtual reality h...