Immersive Virtual Environments (VEs) provide compelling 3D experiences. With a wide-area tracking system to accurately measure users’ positions in real time, users can walk through VEs as in the real world. The team at TU Wien has recently published a highly innovative redirected walking approach called Flexible Spaces (see Figure A.1). Our approach supports infinite real walking and guarantees the user freedom to choose their route.
In order to develop and design applications for various user groups, it is important to understand how large flexible spaces can be designed from an architectural point of view. Is it possible to fit entire virtual worlds into closets, and which design guidelines can be given? How can multiple users be redirected without any collisions?
The candidate will study methods of large space illusions, and will investigate how they can be integrated into virtual environments. We will look into technical/algorithmic design to create new flexible virtual spaces, and we will look into collision avoidance, to explore the design options and to form guidelines for various application domains (rehabilitation, entertainment, industry,…). This research will allow exploring the design limits of spaces when redirecting users.
Supervisor
This topic is supervised by a team of 3 supervisors. Lead supervisor is Hannes Kaufmann (Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems). Additional supervisors are Peter Ferschin (Institute of Architectural Sciences) and Annette Mossel (Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems).
