This bachelor thesis investigates the utilization of the Wii Balance Board
in virtual reality applications. For the investigation a snowboard game is
implemented, in which the virtual avatar can be controlled with the pressure
sensors of the Wii Balance Board. The user should be able to move
playfully and intuitively through the virtual environment by balancing his
body. The immersiveness and the influence on motion sickness and cybersickness
will be investigated. In Addition, the Wii Balance Board will be
compared with the Xbox Controller. The aim of the work is to evaluate
whether the Wii Balance Board is able to allow free movement in virtual
environments and whether it is more advantageous to use it rather than
a conventional controller. The results of the survey indicate that the Wii
Balance Board has a positive influence on the immersivness of the game,
despite better game results by using a conventional controller. The survey
also reveals that the use of the Wii Balance Board is responsible for more
motion-sickness/cybersickness cases.
This Bachelor thesis illustrates the connection between the technologies Augmented and Virtual Reality and creates an expedient interdependency of the two forms of presentation. For this purpose, an application in the area of interior design has been implemented, where designing a room can be made more intuitive by using Augmented Reality, as it provides a realistic impression of the planned apartment with a Virtual Reality simulation. Based on the relevant knowledge, a project-concept has been drafted and realized by using several development systems. During a series of tests this implementation has been evaluated and subsequently optimized. The result confirms the assumption, that Augmented and Virtual Reality with their strengths can be combined to an evident solution. This thesis is relevant for computer science students as well as for people interested in innovative solutions.
Augmented Reality has many areas of application. It can be used to simplify everyday life as well as working processes. However, since there are
many manufacturers that offer greatly varying systems, choosing the correct system according to application as well as cross-platform development are dfficult. This thesis attempts to develop an application which can be used to simulate Augmented Reality devices on Virtual Reality systems. This should simplify the processes of choosing a system as well as cross-platform
development.
Since the simulation will be designed to run on mobile devices, it should be possible to render high quality, realistic environments in advance, using a panoramic image. On a Virtual Reality device, they need to be displayed as a stereoscopic image. To achieve this, several methods are presented that can be used to perform this conversion. An editor will be created which will allow the creation of scenes, configuration of Augmented Reality devices and displaying them on a Virtual Reality system. For closing this thesis a test will be performed, to check the quality of the simulation as well as improvements that can be made.