VIRTUAL REALITY –  HUMAN COMPUTER  INTERACTION    Edited by Xin‐Xing Tang Virtual Reality – Human Computer Interaction http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/3333 Edited by Xin-Xing Tang Contributors Giovanni Saggio, Manfredo Ferrari, Richard M. Levy, Stuart Gilson, Andrew Glennerster, Ying Jin, ShouKun Wang, Naifu Jiang, Yaping Dai, Umar Asif, J.P. Thalen, M.C. van der Voort, Alcínia Z. Sampaio, Joana Prata, Ana Rita Gomes, Daniel Rosário, Piovano Luca, Basso Valter, Rocci Lorenzo, Pasquinelli Mauro, Bar Christian, Marello Manuela, Vizzi Carlo, Lucenteforte Maurizio, Brunello Michela, Racca Filippo, Rabaioli Massimo, Menduni Eleonora, Cencetti Michele, Yusuf Arayici, Paul Coates, Zhuowei Hu, Lai Wei, Wilma Waterlander, Cliona Ni Mhurchu, Ingrid Steenhuis, Elham Andaroodi, Mohammad Reza Matini, Kinji Ono, Kazunori Miyata Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Mirna Cvijic Typesetting InTech Prepress, Novi Sad Cover InTech Design Team First published August, 2012 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected] Virtual Reality – Human Computer Interaction, Edited by Xin-Xing Tang p. cm. ISBN 978-953-51-0721-7 Contents Preface IX Section 1 Visualization of Virtual Reality and Vision Research 1 Chapter 1 New Trends in Virtual Reality Visualization of 3D Scenarios 3 Giovanni Saggio and Manfredo Ferrari Chapter 2 The Virtual Reality Revolution: The Vision and the Reality 21 Richard M. Levy Chapter 3 High Fidelity Immersive Virtual Reality 41 Stuart Gilson and Andrew Glennerster Section 2 Virtual Reality in Robot Technology 59 Chapter 4 A Novel Rehabilitation Evaluation Method on Virtual Reality Based on RRR-I 61 Ying Jin, ShouKun Wang, Naifu Jiang and Yaping Dai Chapter 5 Virtual Reality to Simulate Adaptive Walking in Unstructured Terrains for Multi-Legged Robots 79 Umar Asif Section 3 Industrial and Construction Applications 103 Chapter 6 Facilitating User Involvement in Product Design Through Virtual Reality 105 J.P. Thalen and M.C. van der Voort Chapter 7 Construction and Maintenance Planning Supported on Virtual Environments 125 Alcínia Z. Sampaio, Joana Prata, Ana Rita Gomes and Daniel Rosário VI Contents Chapter 8 Virtual Simulation of Hostile Environments for Space Industry: From Space Missions to Territory Monitoring 153 Piovano Luca, Basso Valter, Rocci Lorenzo, Pasquinelli Mauro, Bar Christian, Marello Manuela, Vizzi Carlo, Lucenteforte Maurizio, Brunello Michela, Racca Filippo, Rabaioli Massimo, Menduni Eleonora and Cencetti Michele Chapter 9 A System Engineering Perspective to Knowledge Transfer: A Case Study Approach of BIM Adoption 179 Yusuf Arayici and Paul Coates Section 4 Culture and Life of Human 207 Chapter 10 Virtual Reality in Village Folk Custom Tourism 209 Zhuowei Hu and Lai Wei Chapter 11 The Use of Virtual Reality in Studying Complex Interventions in Our Every-Day Food Environment 229 Wilma Waterlander, Cliona Ni Mhurchu and Ingrid Steenhuis Chapter 12 Post Disaster Virtual Revival: 3D CG Manual Reconstruction of a World Heritage Site in Danger 261 Elham Andaroodi, Mohammad Reza Matini and Kinji Ono Chapter 13 Fun Computing 287 Kazunori Miyata Preface In recent years, virtual reality technology has become a very popular technology, which embodies the newest research achievements in the fields of computer technology, computer graphics, sensor technology, ergonomics, human-machine interaction theory. More and more people devote into this field and commit themselves to its research, development and application. Virtual reality technology has become one of the means for human to explore the world. What is brought to us by virtual reality? Firstly, it has changed our ideas. Now, the person, instead of computer, is the main body of information technology. Secondly, it has improved the human- machine interactive manner. Now, the natural interactive manner by hand and sound replaces the passive mode in the past. Thirdly, it has changed the manner of life and entertainment. In a word, virtual reality technology is an important technology to be paid attention, which will bring huge impact to our life and work. The book aims to provide a broader perspective of virtual reality on development and application. In this book, we mainly introduce development trend and application of virtual reality. The book includes four parts, the first part is named as “virtual reality visualization and vision”, which includes new developments in virtual reality visualization of 3D scenarios, virtual reality and vision, high fidelity immersive virtual reality included tracking, rendering and display subsystems. And the second part named as “virtual reality in robot technology” brings forth applications of virtual reality in remote rehabilitation robot-based rehabilitation evaluation method and multi-legged robot adaptive walking in unstructured terrains. And the third part named as “industrial and construction applications” is about the product design, space industry, building information modeling, construction and maintenance by virtual reality, and so on. And the last part, which is named as “culture and life of human”, is about the culture life and multimedia technology. At present, the virtual reality not only is used to improve the existing information system in human-computer interaction means, but also has impact on information organization and management, and even changes design principle of information systems, which will make it adapt to application requirements. However, our reviews regarding virtual reality is only limited to the robot, construction and industry, and culture life and multimedia technology. In fact, virtual reality only succeeds in penetrating total information systems by breaking through the limitation, which will X Preface get more healthy and rapid development. Although three-dimensional stereoscopic display device, head tracking device and rendering techniques based on image have been applied, many hardware and software problems need to be solved. Firstly, improve the hardware support by reducing the price of graphics accelerator and decreasing the dependence to three-dimensional stereoscopic display device. It is impossible for every information system to use the expensive graphics workstation and for everyone using the computer to wear the display device. Secondly, improve software development environment support. For example, whether it is possible that virtual reality display system can be generated only from the image directly, and no requiring manual rendering of three-dimensional geometric models, or the virtual reality environment can be rendered real time only by the software accelerator, that will be a problem. Therefore, it is necessary for us to summarize the available technology and application, and discuss the future development trend of virtual reality. Despite new advances in the field of virtual reality technology cannot be covered exhaustively in this volume, we hope this book will help readers to understand how to create and apply the virtual reality system. Xin-Xing Tang Ph.D School of Mechatronic Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, Jilin Province, China