Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Experiment Shows Stylized Rendering Enhances Presence In Immersive AR

Posted by samzenpus on from the looks-like-the-real-thing dept.

An anonymous reader writes William Steptoe, a senior researcher in the Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics group at University College London, published a paper (PDF) detailing experiments dealing with the seamless integration of virtual objects into a real scene. Participants were tested to see if they could correctly identify which objects in the scene were real or virtual. With standard rendering, participants were able to correctly guess 73% of the time. Once a stylized rendering outline was applied, accuracy dropped to 56% (around change) and even further to 38% as the stylized rendering was increased. Less accuracy means users were less able to tell the difference between real and virtual objects. Steptoe says that this blurring of real and virtual can increase 'presence', the feeling of being truly present in another space, in immersive augmented reality applications.

16 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Simulated Universe by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Funny

    some of us see the world in green vertical Greek letters.

  2. Porn ... by chuckugly · · Score: 2

    "A natural next step would be to add haptic feedback allowing users to touch virtual objects. Users could pick up physical items and computer generated ones at the same time while still thinking both are real. Adding the ability to walk around would expand one’s sense of presence as well. This allows individuals to explore computer generated environments further immersing them into the experience." - Article

    Yeah, it's for porn

    1. Re:Porn ... by rebelwarlock · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Everything will be used for porn. That doesn't make it a bad thing. Technology has been driven in large part by sex, and will continue to be. If people think something can be used for porn, they'll put more money into it, and then you can use it for other things too.

    2. Re: Porn ... by brainboyz · · Score: 2

      You're doing it wrong. Unreal expectations for sex? More like idea generator according to my wife.

      Also, based on some of the relationships I've seen, porn is the reason they still have a family. If not for porn as an outlet, they would have long ago ditched the wife (who let herself go) and kids for the fun and bubbly 20-something at work.

    3. Re: Porn ... by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm imagining this conversation as the same guy talking to himself, since both are AC...

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    4. Re: Porn ... by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      which will continue to destroy families

      You are confusing porn with fluoridated water. It's a common mistake for those who have been subject to so many government satellite brain scans.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    5. Re:Porn ... by theronb · · Score: 2

      Better driven by sex than by war. Most big tech innovations have come out of "defense" R&D.

  3. Duh! by nman64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It isn't terribly surprising that adding a cartoonish rendering effect to both real and virtual objects would make them more difficult to discern as such. I certainly wouldn't call it more immersive - quite the opposite, in fact. It is extremely obvious that what you are looking at has been altered and that you are not looking at "reality".

    1. Re:Duh! by Animats · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Right. The original post doesn't make it clear that the system applies edge enhancement filters to the "real world" objects as well as the virtual ones. So everything looks crappy. It's not clear what this is supposed to prove.

      Watching the video, the easiest way to tell real from virtual objects is that the amount of lag on the real and virtual objects differs.

    2. Re:Duh! by julesh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It isn't terribly surprising that adding a cartoonish rendering effect to both real and virtual objects would make them more difficult to discern as such. I certainly wouldn't call it more immersive - quite the opposite, in fact. It is extremely obvious that what you are looking at has been altered and that you are not looking at "reality".

      Right, but "immersive" doesn't mean "difficult to distinguish from reality" but rather "easy to treat as if it were real". I mean, I used to find playing Elite on my Sinclair Spectrum "immersive", but there's not a chance I'd ever fail to know it wasn't real. Being immersive means allowing people to retain what's often called "willing suspension of disbelief" -- as long as the system I'm looking at behaves consistently, I can treat it as if it were real, so I can (at least sort-of) believe in its existence as a real thing. And maintaining that sense of existence is what people mean when they say immersion.

      The filters they applied in the video make the scenes look less realistic overall, but they make them more consistent, and that lets me believe in them as real in a way I can't easily believe in the unfiltered scene.

  4. Re:Simulated Universe by enoz · · Score: 4, Informative

    the rest of us saw it in green vertical Katakana

  5. Re:Simulated Universe by Stormwatch · · Score: 2

    All I see now is blonde, brunette, redhead.

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
  6. SUMARY OF THE ARTICLE- by arfonrg · · Score: 2

    "Boffins have found that when you alter the appearance of an object, humans find it more difficult to perceive it as it actually is".

    --
    Your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
  7. Mind Blowing! ;) by ihaveamo · · Score: 2

    Not even the article author knows what's real any more! Quote from TFA: For example, users avoided simulated boxes in one of the experiments when walking around despite knowing that they were real.

  8. I stepped outside once by ihtoit · · Score: 4, Funny

    It reminded me that I needed to upgrade my video card.

    "Dude, the colour depth out there is fucking *amazing*!"

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    1. Re:I stepped outside once by ihtoit · · Score: 2

      the NPCs and gameplay suck though.

      (OLD meme, even older than memebase or cheezburger or whatever, it probably predates 7th Guest!)

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel