ABSTRACT
MNLTour is a virtual tour system for selected tourist spots situated within the city of Manila. It utilizes 360-degree images, 2D images, voice recordings, and virtual reality technology to offer an immersive user experience of the virtual environment. The virtual tour system was developed using the Unity3D software and was then integrated into web and mobile applications accessible through web browsers and android smartphones, respectively. MNLTour aims to promote the wonders of Manila city by showcasing some of its historical tourist spots that have been severely affected by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The developed web and mobile applications were tested and later evaluated to assess the overall quality of the software in accordance with ISO 9126 standard. The evaluation statements primarily focus on the aspects of functionality, efficiency, usability, effectiveness, and user satisfaction in using the application. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze and summarize the data gathered from the evaluation respondents. The evaluation of the application in both platforms turned out to have admirable evaluation results;hence, it's safe to say that the developed software has an acceptable overall quality. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Virtual Reality is a computer-programmed environment where the user can feel and immerse themselves in their surroundings with scenes and objects that appear to be real but actually fake. Right now, Virtual Reality technology is starting to become more popular not only by the people who use it for entertainment purposes, but also popular for the business companies. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, all businesses in Tourism like Taman Safari Indonesia were having trouble getting visitors. Not only that, there are also visitors who couldn't visit the park due to their locations being far away from the park locations. In this study, the researchers will implement this Virtual Reality into the Taman Safari Bogor Tour Business in order to increase their visitors by using enterprise architecture. The researchers at this study used the Essential Enterprise Architecture framework model, because in the Essential Enterprise Architecture framework, it helps explain the Business Architecture, Information System Architecture, and the Information Technology Architecture that will be needed in the Virtual Reality implementation phase. With the implementation of the Virtual Reality Tour into the Taman Safari Indonesia Tourism Industry, it could helped solve the low visitors come due to Covid-19 Pandemic and also gives an opportunity to gather more visitors who lives far away from the park locations including visitors from other country. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Traditional hydraulic drive experiments present a number of challenges. During the hydraulic transmission experiment, the equipment is easily damaged and must be frequently updated, which makes it difficult for a large number of students to study at the same time;the traditional offline, monotonous, and boring experiments make it difficult for students to increase their interest in learning from what is inherent;and most undergraduate students have to study at home due to the impact of COVID-19. Therefore, students need an excellent teaching system that allows them to perform experiments at home and improve their learning efficiency. A teaching system for the undergraduate hydraulic transmission course was designed to meet the needs of the hydraulic transmission course and to stimulate students' interest in learning. This teaching system allows students to spend more time outside of the class to analyze experimental results and relate concepts presented in lecture courses to experimental results. Finally, a course on hydraulic drives taught at Nanchang University was used to evaluate the effectiveness of this teaching system. The analysis based on positive student feedback and academic performance shows that the proposed teaching system is an effective learning tool for undergraduate students in their learning process. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
Initiatives for marine conservation are funded by revenue from marine sites. However, the emergence of COVID-19 has restricted travelling, thus leading to decreased revenue and weakening conservation efforts. Virtual reality technology to support marine conservation efforts is explored as it allows users to experience marine sites, without having to be there physically. This study examines factors influencing users' desire to adopt virtual reality technology in marine ecotourism. With the integration of Stimulus-Organism-Response framework and three behavioural theories (i.e. health belief model, attitude, and eTrust), a hypothetical model was constructed to investigate consumers' intention to adopt virtual reality technology in marine ecotourism amidst the pandemic. The data were analysed and interpreted using structural equation modelling after 451 survey responses were obtained via an online questionnaire. Outcome expectation, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, self-efficacy, and cues to action exhibit significant positive effects on attitude towards virtual reality technology in marine ecotourism. Consequently, attitude has a direct and indirect influence on use intention via eTrust. Post hoc analysis revealed that self-efficacy has a direct impact on eTrust and use intention. Total effect analysis further concluded that attitude has the greatest influence on use intention of virtual reality technology in marine ecotourism. This research contributes to the existing literature by utilizing health belief factors to explain use intention of technology towards marine conservation efforts. Recommendations including policy formulation and marketing initiatives were generated for marine ecotourism operators and policymakers. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
ABSTRACT
While the global COVID-19 pandemic did not catalyze widespread adoption of virtual reality (VR) technologies across all industries as some had anticipated, studies like Hall et al. from 2022 have demonstrated that public valuation of VR remains strongly in gaming, entertainment, and socializing [Hall et al., 2022]. As we look towards a future in which indoor gatherings with friends and family are safe and encouraged once again, there is an opportunity to position VR gaming as a go-to add-on to social gatherings by emphasizing ease of access for players of all levels of experience, and designing gameplay that encourages engagement rather than isolation in shared space. Fruit Golf aims to use an asymmetric multiplayer format to offer an experience that spans collaborative and competitive experiences, and allows players to seamlessly interact with VR, mobile, and physical spaces in ways that most will have never seen before. © 2022 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
In the COVID-19 pandemic, control measures including wearing masks, ensuring hand hygiene, and maintaining a physical distance of at least 1 m were recommended to prevent the spread of virus. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of face mask, approach pattern and participants’ gender on interpersonal distance in the pandemic environment. Virtual reality (VR) technology was applied to build the experimental environment. This study recruited 31 participants including 17 males and 14 females, who were asked to interact with virtual confederates with and without a face mask. The interpersonal distance was recorded when participants actively walk towards the virtual confederate or approached passively by the confederate. Three-way ANOVA results showed that face mask and approach pattern had significant effects on interpersonal distance. The distance when facing the confederate with a face mask was significantly closer than without a face mask. Moreover, participants preferred a significantly larger distance in the passive pattern than in the active pattern. The participants’ gender showed no significant effect on interpersonal distance and no interaction effects were found. The findings in this study helped to further investigate the nature of interpersonal distance and contributed to a better understanding of the human behaviors in the pandemic environment. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted globally on many industries worldwide (e.g., business and tourism). It has also caused unprecedented disruption to Thailand’s educational system. For instance, regular face-to-face classrooms had been temporarily stopped and moved to full-time online learning in which educators and students have used commercially available e-learning platforms (e.g., Moodle) and conferencing tools (e.g., Zoom). Although e-learning platforms and conferencing tools have shown benefits for both educators and learners, social interaction is limited on such platforms. Alternative solutions such as Virtual Reality (VR) technologies have shown promise to solve these challenges;however, research is limited in using such VR technologies in higher education in Thailand. To fill these gaps, we conducted a comparative usability study of three different learning platforms (three-dimensional VR – Spatial.io, two-dimensional VR – Gather.town, and Zoom application) to understand differences in usability and user experiences in terms of students’ engagement, enjoyment, and their sociability in learning. Findings suggest that due to its game-like environment and user-friendly features and user interface, Gather.town is the most promising alternative for online learning in higher education in Thailand. This study suggests opportunities for using game-like virtual classrooms for students to improve their engagement in learning. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
In this article, the authors describe the evaluation of safety-oriented teaching at a technical university during the COVID pandemic under the long-term closure of universities in the Czech Republic. Three practical case studies are presented to illustrate the current level of sophistication of virtual reality technology for industrial safety teaching. The case studies are focused on the environment of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and cooperation with them. The proposed affordable and simple approaches describe virtual teaching at universities providing education in the field of safety engineering. © ESREL 2021. Published by Research Publishing, Singapore.
ABSTRACT
Having a healthy social life is an important part of our mental health, especially when it comes to children. Kids need to feel a connection between the environments in which they both live and play. In the last two years, COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives both personally and professionally. Because of the pandemic, meeting people in physical locations has been problematic. This situation has only amplified the need to foster connections. Technology plays a crucial role in helping children stay connected, however, we have found that children are more accepting of this when they are allowed to be able to take more active role in developing these platforms. Creating virtual environments, for example, has been shown to increase the interest of children in reaching out to their friends and family, and connecting with others across time zones, languages, and cultures. The children's Idea Booklet, from the 2022 ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Research & Design Challenge identified significant interest in children using VR headset technology to connect with friends and family. Our research team, KidsTeam, built on these ideas to design KidConnect VR. KidConnect VR allows kids to connect with others via a virtual environment. This environment can be built to look like their surrounding area. In the virtual world, children can play, chat, and even study with friends. © 2022 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
The prevalence of depression and anxiety disorders has increased dramatically in the last two years due to the global COVID-19 epidemic, which leads to a shortage of traditional mental health care resources. To address these issues, we propose to use the digital, immersive, and private features of virtual reality technology to assist in the treatment of mental illness. We designed and completed a garden scene for virtual reality horticultural therapy based on the basic principles of traditional horticultural therapy. In order to study the effectiveness of the gardening scenario, we recruited 30 subjects to explore the effectiveness of mood regulation. A survey of a PANAS scale was conducted before and after the garden scene, and a user experience scale was presented to the subjects after the experiment. The ANOVA results showed that there were significant differences between anxious, distressed and self-loathing before and after the experiment. This demonstrates that virtual reality horticulture therapy has a mood-improving effect. In future works, we will improve the design of VR gardening scenarios and conduct more in-depth research on virtual reality horticulture therapy. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The need of supporting meditation through digital technology has been increased especially after COVID-19. By combining the olfactory experience provided by the ambient incense connected with virtual reality technology, we propose to bring the aesthetic and affective aspects of smell to the users for meditation in the digital era. TranScent aims to provide users a hybrid composition of sensory experiences that transcends the spatial and temporal characteristics in their surroundings. It lets the users meditate with the incense burnt in the real world while immersing in the audiovisual virtual environment. Rather than emphasizing on the mobility in fast pace, it focuses on giving users the stillness atmosphere for meditation practice through olfactory art with virtual reality. © 2021 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.
ABSTRACT
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibits social communication and social interaction disorders, and abnormal restrictive and repetitive behaviors. However, symptoms of infants less than 1-year-old are difficult to reliably predict subsequent diagnosis. Patients with mild ASD may not be discovered until school age, because schools have more opportunities for social activities. In addition, the therapist also needs to consider the labor cost. To provide effective treatment, it also needs to consume more resources. The current situation in Taiwan is that outlying islands and remote areas often have insufficient manpower for therapists. If VR technology can be applied, some of the problems may be solved. However, due to the global pandemic, COVID-19, early treatments or group treatments in many countries have been forced to stop. If VR technology can provide interpersonal interaction scenes, the training of ASD children can hardly be affected.This research uses Virtual Reality (VR) technology, combined with wearable multi-model sensing technology, including EEG, eye tracking, heart rate variability (HRV), and breath-sensing strap. Physiological signals and game performance data are collected while users are training, and integrate multiple evaluation scales such as ADOS, SRS, and CBCL. Statistical analysis of these data is performed to classify them through machine learning models to develop a VR assistance system that can be used to evaluate the diagnosis, severity, and social behavior treatment of ASD. This system presents assessment and therapy in a game-oriented way. In addition to enhancing the incentives for users to participate, it provides better training results than traditional training. It is also an effective and convenient tool for the therapist to use during evaluation and training. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
In the context of widespread digitalization of businesses and academia due to COVID-19, the new effective tool has become necessary to drive innovations. This paper observes the international scientific experiment VRE-IP that tested the hypothesis of the advantages of using virtual reality for teamwork, creativity, and innovation. VRE-IP experiment was based on design thinking methodology and supported SAP innovation process. The analysis of the trends of using virtual reality for educational and business development goals, and VRE-IP experiment revealed that employing virtual reality technology to organize workshops, distant meetings, plenary reports, and other tasks is exceptionally efficient, improves the engagement rate and creativity and contributes to the process of innovative ideas stimulation. The experiment also demonstrated the need for building a hybrid model for teamwork. The combination of traditional teamwork instruments and virtual technologies is proposed as the most sustainable and systematic model for online collaboration at the current stage of technological development. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Rural tourism destinations meet difficulties in developing rural cultural tourism because of their poor marketing abilities. This research applied virtual reality to promote rural tourism destinations' images. Taking Hubei province as an example, this research investigated the practical approaches of integrating virtual reality with rural cultural tourism. By conducting the field research in Zijin town, the outcomes shown that the virtual reality technology helped dig out the rural tourism destination's advantages and expand its market. The results of this research contributed to promoting the brand awareness of rural tourism destinations and recovering rural tourism after the epidemic of COVID-19. © 2021 IEEE.
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A study has been conducted to evaluate the virtual reality technology and online teaching system among medical students of Bogomolets NationalMedical University, Ukraine during COVID-19 pandemic. The final questionnairecontained the 15 questions with 5 options to comprehensively evaluate thevirtual reality technology and online teaching system. The feedback of the surveywas analyzed to find effectiveness of virtual reality technology and online teachingin medical education in Ukraine. Data of survey reflected that mostly studentsadopted and agreed on virtual reality technology and online teaching and admittedthat these technologies are best alternatives to physical learning with the65.79% an agreement with the user-friendly interface for virtual reality andonline teaching system, while, 64.03% showed an agreement that virtual realityand online teaching system compensated the suspension of face-to-face medicaleducation during the COVID-19. During online learning, there was ample timefor educational activities as depicted from their response of 36.84% as stronglyagree, 35.96% as agree, 6.14% as disagree, 4.39% as strongly disagree and16.67% as neither agree nor disagree. Tutors/teachers also enjoyed virtual realityand online learning through their experience and flexibility in time management.Likewise, the results of all questions showed positive reviews and encouragedvirtual reality and online teaching in academic continuity and stability in medicaleducation in Ukraine. It can be concluded that digital learning environments areextremely effective in terms of medical students and staff satisfaction, accomplishment,and technical learning skill growth © 2021. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
Public health emergencies provide an opportunity for the application of information technology in life education courses in universities. Information technologies such as 5G technology, cloud technology, virtual reality technology and big data technology have all been applied to the process of life education in universities. Information technology helps to maintain the life safety of teachers and students in colleges and universities, and plays a positive role in improving the quality of life education in colleges and universities. Information technology can protect the physical and mental safety of college students, meet the needs of different college students for life education, and help them to form a correct value of life. © 2021 ACM.