DOM-E5161 - Introduction to Virtual Reality, 10.09.2020-15.10.2020

Topic outline

• General
  Time to learn the basics of Virtual Reality! At least this fall the course will be given online by Markku Reunanen and Tapio Takala due to the coronavirus situation – check your email for the Zoom link before the 1st session. The lectures will be on Thursdays at 13:15–15. Here's the schedule:
  
  

  • Sep 10: Kickoff, basic terminology and concepts, history of VR (Markku)
  • Sep 17: Display devices and human vision (Tassu)
  • Sep 24: Tracking methods (Markku)
  • Oct 1: Interaction in VR (Tassu)
  • Oct 8: Augmented Reality – guest lecture by Otto Korkalo / VTT
  • Oct 15: Simulator sickness, wrapping up, instructions for the exam (Markku)

  
  

  More details on the lectures, materials and so on to follow shortly. If you were looking for DOM-E5025 – 3D User Interface Design, this course replaces that.

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    General discussion Forum

• Materials
  The online book Virtual Reality by Steven M. LaValle forms the backbone of the course and is also the exam material. Other readings will be provided on lectures and here:

  • Augmented reality: A class of displays on the reality-virtuality continuum
  • Virtual reality as an artistic medium: A study on creative projects using contemporary head-mounted displays
  • Privacy, Security and Safety Concerns of using HMDs in Public and Semi-Public Spaces
    
  • IntenSelect: Using Dynamic Object Rating for Assisting 3D Object Selection
  • Design Guidelines for Landmarks to Support Navigation in Virtual Environments
    
  • Simulaattorisairauteen vaikuttavien tekijöiden vähentäminen bussisimulaattoriympäristössä
  • 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice – another useful book with a wide range of topics
  • Also useful reading are the lecture notes of the earlier course CS-E4002 - Virtual and Augmented Reality  (partly the same as here).
    

  
  

  Pioneering works

  Some more links that are of historical importance for VR, even if the content might already be somewhat outdated.

  • Put-That-There
  • Virtual Environment Interaction Techniques
    
  • Moving Objects In Space: Exploiting Proprioception In Virtual-Environment Interaction
    

• Assignments
  80% presence on lectures and a passed exam are required to complete the course. The exam is graded and will decide the overall course grade. We'll use the Exam classrooms for the purpose, meaning you book the time online yourself and go to do the exam whenever it best suits you between October 29 and November 13. You'll have three hours for answering the questions there.

  There will be four essay questions on the following topics, based on the lecture materials and chapters of the course book:

  1. General definitions (Chapters 1 and 2)
  2. Vision and perception (Chapters 5 and 6)
  3. Interaction (Chapter 10 – calculations excluded)
  4. Human factors (Section 8.4 and Chapter 12 – statistics excluded)

  
  

  You'll get an invitation to your Aalto email, so keep following it. Each answer should be about one "A4" page or 500 words maximum and will award you 0–5 points. The final grade of the exam will be then as follows:

  • 0–8 points: 0
  • 9–10 points: 1
  • 11–12 points: 2
  • 13–15 points: 3
  • 16–17 points: 4
  • 18–20 points: 5