Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Yu-Long Deng1,2
School of Computing, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210003, PRC
State Key Laboratory of Software Development Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, PRC
Abstract: This paper presents a survey on virtual reality systems and provides an in-depth understanding toward the notion of
immersion, according to the semantic meanings of the terms virtual and reality. The paper analyses the structure and functions
of a virtual reality system and takes the three dimensional display as the immersive medium to identify the key issues for construction
of virtual environments. The paper also reviews the development of virtual reality technology and introduces new image processing
techniques into the design of virtual reality systems and virtual environments.
Keywords:
Introduction
Virtual reality
2.1
320
system. This closed system contains the virtual environment, interface of software and hardware, and the physical
environment. With such denition, a virtual reality system has to be supported by necessary devices via which the
user can interact with the object of the virtual environment
in a natural way and can obtain the real-time experience
and feelings of the physical environment by operating the
objects in the virtual environment. Importantly, user can
overcome the constraints of time and space and control the
elements which are intangible in the physical environment.
The denitions of virtual reality in terms of its technological implication have encouraged researchers to explore new
dimensions beyond its current application demands. With
the development of computing hardware and software, especially the development of new three-dimension graphics
techniques, the impact of virtual reality on visualization
and simulation has fundamentally changed the way in which
people use computers. For instance, users would immerse
themselves in the virtual world to experience events and
obtain knowledge which would not possible in conventional
ways. Nevertheless, such immersion is presenting a new
challenge: it may confuse the user with virtual scenarios
and cause unreal information to be taken as real knowledge
and important fact. In an abstractive level, the representation between virtual and real, data and fact, true and false
need to be realized in a way that such confusion can be
eliminated.
2.2
2.2.1
the idea conforms to an existing thing in nature, it is considered as real. When the idea does not conform to an existing
thing in nature, it is considered as virtual.
The German philosopher Leibniz[6] disproved the idea of
Locke at the end of the 17th century. He argued that the
idea may have a foundation in nature but does not conform
to it. For example, the sensation to the color and heat is not
similar to any original or prototype. When an idea does not
match anything existing, but it is possible, it also can be
considered as real.[6] He also believed that the idea which
arbitrarily connects with a real thing by us is considered as
virtual.[6] Leibniz s description emphasized not only on a
thing existing in nature, but also on an idea that may not
be physically proven. In his opinion, the idea that did not
conform to anything in nature is considered as real if it is
possible, and only the absurd idea without any foundation
is considered as virtual.
People s imagination that does not conform to an existence in our space and time is believed to be unreal at
present. However, it may exist in the past or appear in
the future, or exist in other worlds or just in our world but
cannot be known or perceived currently by people. With
space transforming and time passing, the idea may match
with an existence in certain time and space. Such an idea
should not be considered as virtual but can be considered
as real.
In 1945, Clarke[7] , a British science ction novelist, established the mechanism of satellite communication. His
idea was scoed at by scientists of that time and was believed to be impossible and virtual, but today, his idea has
become reality. In the 1960s, the author of the sci-ction
Solar Sailboat imagined a sailboat with the power of sunlight. The idea which conformed to nothing in nature in
those days was considered virtual and unreal. However, in
July 2001, Russia succeeded in launching a spacecraft with
the power of solar sail, named as Universe No. 1. Now
the idea of the solar sailboat is thought to be real, and it
indeed conforms to an existence. As a result, Leibniz s description of virtual and reality is more comprehensive, and
it has enhanced the idea of Locke in time and space.
In the philosophy dictionary of Lalande, the term virtual is dened. In common sense, virtual means a thing in
a certain object which can be realized; in a limited sense,
virtual is a predened thing in an object with all the basic
conditions inside. These basic conditions which cannot be
seen from the outside will make the predened thing reality.
Hence, virtual is connected with a possibility or potential,
which is opposite to reality. Virtual and reality are two
dierent terms but they are closely related with each other.
In the realism of modern virtual reality technology, the
perception and experience obtained by user in the virtual
world is the same as in the real world. The immersed sense
is the main feature of the virtual reality.
2.2.2 Immersion
In 1975, psychologist Csikszentmihalyi[8] rst presented
ow theory and gave a series of denitions for ow.
Definition 1. The state of being completely involved in
an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time ies.
Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably
321
from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being
is involved, and you are using your skills to the utmost.
According to the denition of ow, it refers to a psychological state of devoting oneself to a certain activity.
According to the degree of involvement in an activity, ow
falls into immersion, half-immersion, and apartness.
Definition 2. The state of being completely involved
in an activity for its own sake and losing other unrelated
perceptions is called as immersion.
Psychologists always use the word immersion to describe the unique experience in which people are completely
attracted by the activity and involved in it.
Definition 3. When people participate in an activity or
environment, their minds are separated from the activity
and environment because of disinterest. This perception
and experience in mind is called apartness.
Definition 4. The degree of ow is between immersion
and apartness is called as half-immersion.
2.2.3 New definition
Virtual reality creates a physical and a mental space for
people. The essence of it is a sense of space in which people s
imagination can be realized. Besides this, in original ideas
of technology, the goal of virtual reality is to make people
get a kind of existence of sense perception in fact. People s
understanding of any existence in nature depends on the
perception of their minds. The degree of ow is a kind of
measuring of perception of mind. Therefore, the denition
of virtual reality based on the degree of ow has a more
comprehensive philosophical notion than on the technology.
Based on the degree of ow, a more general denition of
virtual reality is described as follows:
Definition 5. When people are apart from the world
constructed in their minds, the imaginary world is considered as a virtual world.
Definition 6. When people immerse into the world constructed in their minds, the imaginary world is considered
as a virtual reality.
Definition 7. When people half immerse the world constructed in their minds, the imaginary world is considered
as a medium virtual reality.
The imaginary world exists in the mind of the creator.
It can be the display of a real world or a pure conceived
world which exceeds the reality and can be expressed by a
certain medium. The technological feature of the denition
of virtual reality based on technology is a kind of digital
implementation means by which the user can create the
imaginary world by computer.
Display medium
3.1
3.2
322
In 1973, Krurger[10] presented the term articial reality, which was the early term of virtual reality.
In 1987, Foley[11] published a paper entitled Interfaces
for Advanced Computing in the journal Scientific American. Another paper [12] about data gloves was also published in this journal. These published papers about virtual
reality attracted people greatly.
In 1989, American Jarn Lanier formally presented the
term virtual reality.
In 1992, Sense8 Company developed the WTK package which can provide a higher level application in virtual
reality technology.
In March, 1994, virtual reality modeling language
(VRML) was rst formally presented in the rst WWW
conference in Genevese. After that, many modeling languages of VR have appeared such as X3D, Java3D, and so
on.
In 1994, Burdea and Coiet[13] published a book about
virtual reality in which they summarized the basic characters of VR as 3I (imagination, interaction, and immersion).
In the 1990s, with the rapid development of computer
software, and hardware systems, it has become possible to
produce the real-time cartoon of image and sound based
on large-scale sets of data. More and more novel practicable in/output devices are provided in market and the
innovational design of the man machine interaction system
continues to be given life. All of these make a good foundation for the development of virtual reality. Furthermore,
research on virtual reality technology has been carried out
in some countries in Europe and Asia, such as Japan and
China.
In Europe, the United Kingdom leads the development
of VR in some areas, especially in distributed parallel processing, design of assistant devices (including feeling feedback) and the applications. The British Bristol Company
has pointed out that the application of VR should focus
on comprehensive technology and they are ahead in some
software and hardware.
The testing platform of a German computer graphics institute can be used to evaluate the inuence of VR on future
systems and interfaces, and it also can provide advanced visual simulation technology to the user and producer.
The development of virtual reality technology in Japan
plays an important role in the relevant elds of the world.
They have achieved great success in developing a large scale
knowledge base and games in virtual reality.
Research on VR technology in China started in the 1990s.
We have made much progress but still fall behind the developed countries. The research results are outlined as follows:
The Xi an Virtual Reality Engineering and Technology
Research Center is the rst institute to carry out the research on VR technology in China. Potala Palace created by the Optical Memory National Engineering Research
Center (OMNERC) is a panorama VR system in which
QuickTime technology was applied. The Laboratory of
CAD & CG of Zhejiang University developed a desktop
real-time walkthrough system of an architecture environment. The CAD centre of the North China University
of Technology is one of the rst institutes to study com-
Image processing
4.1
Accurately extracting the interesting object is a precondition in image based rendering of a virtual environment.
However, because of the eect of noise, it becomes difcult to get useful information from images. According
to the steps of obtaining images, we know that in images
the useful data always mix with noise. The existence of
noise obscures the boundary between the object and the
background, which makes it dicult to distinguish them.
This is a much confused problem in the computer visual
eld. Therefore, noise reduction, image enhancement, and
restoration are becoming the very important steps in image
based rendering of a virtual environment.
Mean lter, median lter, and Wiener lter are the
classical noise removal algorithms. These methods can
remove noise but they obscure the edge as well. Further, the improvement in traditional algorithms, fuzzy
mathematics[15] , wavelet transformation[16] , and partial differential equations (PDE)[17] have been widely adopted in
image noise removal and restoration. Furthermore, genetic
algorithm[18] , neural net algorithm[19] , mathematical morphologic theory[20] , and rough sets[21] are also introduced
into image noise removal and restoration.
How to eliminate noise and preserve the edge and texture
details that make the image become more smooth and reach
to best eect the same time still need to be studied.
323
4.2
4.3
Image matching
4.4
Image fusion
324
sical methods, but also includes the discussion of new methods combined with new mathematical theories. Although
these theories and methods have had much notable achievements which can not be obtained by traditional methods,
the results which can replace human visual function in applications are decient. As a result, it is valuable to study
new theories and methods and design new image processing methods which give out satisfactory results of image
analysis, according to the requirements of the specic application.
The medium principle was established by Zhu and
Xiao[36] in the 1980s devised medium logic tools to build
the medium mathematics system, the corner stone of which
is medium axiomatic sets. In the formation of the medium
mathematics system, the medium concept which dynamically reects the fuzzy was rst established, then the
medium logic system was built. Finally, the medium axiomatic set theory based on medium logic was created. It
has a solid logic foundation. The medium mathematics systems have solved the set making of fuzzy predicates in the
sense of the basic theory of mathematics and extended precise quantity objects to fuzzy ones with mathematical foundation, which extends the foundation of the logic and set
theory of classical mathematics.
The complexity of image information and the strong relations among image pixels are evident, and problems with
uncertainty and inaccuracy will appear in the processing.
As a result, the medium mathematics system, a mathematical tool which deals with fuzzy and uncertain problems,
can be introduced into the image processing. This will provide some new methods and ideas to process images systematically and mathematically. Currently, it has achieved
interesting results in noise removal and restoration[37] , edge
detection[38] , and image matching. Further research is to
apply these results to image mosaic based reddening of virtual reality systems.
Conclusions
environments.
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Ning-Ning Zhou
graduated from
Southeast University (SEU), PRC in 1993.
She received the M. Sc. degree from SEU
in 1996 and the Ph. D. degree from SEU
in 2009, respectively.
She is currently
an associate professor at the College of
Computer, Nanjing University of Posts
and Telecommunications (NUPT), PRC
and a visiting research fellow of State
Key Laboratory of Software Development
Environment, Beihang University, PRC.
Her research interests include virtual reality and image processing.
Yu-Long Deng
graduated from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, PRC in 1996. He is currently a
lecturer at the College of Computer, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (NUPT), PRC and a visiting research fellow of State Key Laboratory of
Software Development Environment, Beihang University, PRC.
His research interests include computer
architecture, algorithm, and articial intelligence.