• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Broadcast Engineers Conference
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• 1999.06b
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• pp.87-93
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• 1999

In this paper, we introduce a novel virtual studio environment where a broadcaster in the virtual set interacts with tele-viewers as if they are sharing the same environment as participants. A tele-viewer participates physically in the virtual studio environment by a dummy-head equipped with video "eyes" and microphone "ears" physically located in the studio. The dummy head as a surrogate of the tole-viewer follows the tele-viewer's head movements and views and hears through the dummy head like a tele-operated robot. By introducing the tele-presence technology in the virtual studio setting, the broadcaster can not only interact with the virtual set elements like the regular virtual studio environment but also share the physical studio with the surrogates of the tele-viewers as participants. The tele-viewer may see the real broadcaster in the virtual set environment and other participants as avatars in place of their respective dummy heads. With an immersive display like HMD, the tele-viewer may look around the studio and interact with other avatars. The new interactive virtual studio with the immersive viewer environment may be applied to immersive tele-conferencing, tele-teaching, and interactive TV program productions.program productions.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.43 no.4 s.310
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• pp.103-112
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• 2006

In this paper, we propose a PC based immersive virtual environment system with expandability and compatibility in contrary to existing immersive virtual environment(IVE) systems which have been implemented by supercomputer or special computing system. The application based on commercial personal compute may have two major advantage: one is variety of resources, the other is user-friendly interface. This system intends to offer easy contact to IVE system, realistic images, and convenience. Also, the system can handle various virtual reality at real-time and make it easier to interface existing complicated haptic device. Geometric techniques are adopted to calculate and visualize the physical phenomenon to speed up the computing time. The proposed implementation method of PC based immersive virtual environment system is implemented to the example in which user move around inside of and interact with virtual office environment wearing data glove, behavior recognition devices, and HMD.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.49-71
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• 2017

The purpose of the study was to identify key design features of virtual reality with head-mounted displays (HMD) and touchless interface for the hearing-impaired and hard-of-hearing learners. The virtual reality based training program was aimed to help hearing-impaired learners in machine operating learning, which requires spatial understanding to operate. We developed an immersive virtual learning environment prototype with an HMD (Oculus Rift) and a touchless natural user interface (Leap Motion) to identify the key design features required to enhance virtual reality for the hearing-impaired and hard-of-hearing learners. Two usability tests of the prototype were conducted, which revealed that several features in the system need revision and that the technology presents an enormous potential to help hearing-impaired learners by providing realistic and immersive learning experiences. After the usability tests of hearing-impaired students' exploring the 3D virtual space, interviews were conducted, which also established that further revision of the system is needed, which would take into account the learners' physical as well as cognitive characteristics.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2024

In immersive virtual environments including mixed reality (MR) and virtual reality (VR), avatars or agents, which are virtual humans, are being studied and applied in various ways as factors that increase users' social presence. Recently, studies are being conducted to apply generative AI as an agent to improve user learning effects or suggest a collaborative environment in an immersive virtual environment. This study proposes a novel method for interface application of a virtual assistant agent (VAA) using OpenAI's ChatGPT in an immersive virtual environment including VR and MR. The proposed method consists of an information agent that responds to user queries and a control agent that controls virtual objects and environments according to user needs. We set up a development environment that integrates the Unity 3D engine, OpenAI, and packages and development tools for user participation in MR and VR. Additionally, we set up a workflow that leads from voice input to the creation of a question query to an answer query, or a control request query to a control script. Based on this, MR and VR experience environments were produced, and experiments to confirm the performance of VAA were divided into response time of information agent and accuracy of control agent. It was confirmed that the interface application of the proposed VAA can increase efficiency in simple and repetitive tasks along with user-friendly features. We present a novel direction for the interface application of an immersive virtual environment through the proposed VAA and clarify the discovered problems and limitations so far.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1964-1967
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• 2021

Recently, to improve the effectiveness of education to learn from textbooks, immersive 3D environments such as virtual reality(VR) has been widely used for education. In this paper, in order to intuitively present education about content scenarios on changes in the human body according to food intake, we consist an immersive virtual reality environment to express the same life-size organs. The participants in our educational system showed higher results in all items compared to the existing textbook-based education such as immersion, understanding, and quality of education program. Also it was found the importance of interactivity to increase the effectiveness of immersive class.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.69-77
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• 2023

This study proposes a rigid-body tracking based virtual avatar application method to increase the social presence and provide various experiences of virtual reality(VR) users in an immersive virtual environment. The proposed method estimates the motion of a virtual avatar through inverse kinematics based on real-time rigid-body tracking based on motion capture using markers. Through this, it aims to design a highly immersive virtual environment with simple object manipulation in the real world. Science experiment educational contents are produced to experiment and analyze applications related to immersive virtual environments through virtual avatars. In addition, audiovisual education, full-body tracking, and the proposed rigid-body tracking method were compared and analyzed through survey. In the proposed virtual environment, participants wore VR HMDs and conducted a survey to confirm immersion and educational effects from virtual avatars performing experimental educational actions from estimated motions. As a result, through the method of utilizing virtual avatars based on rigid-body tracking, it was possible to induce higher immersion and educational effects than traditional audiovisual education. In addition, it was confirmed that a sufficiently positive experience can be provided without much work for full-body tracking.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

This study compares hand-based interfaces to improve a user's virtual reality (VR) presence by enhancing user immersion in VR interactions. To provide an immersive experience, in which users can more directly control the virtual environment and objects within that environment using their hands and, to simultaneously minimize the device burden on users using immersive VR systems, we designed two experimental interfaces (hand motion recognition sensor- and controller-based interactions). Hand motion recognition sensor-based interaction reflects accurate hand movements, direct gestures, and motion representations in the virtual environment, and it does not require using a device in addition to the VR head mounted display (HMD). Controller-based interaction designs a generalized interface that maps the gesture to the controller's key for easy access to the controller provided with the VR HMD. The comparative experiments in this study confirm the convenience and intuitiveness of VR interactions using the user's hand.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.397-408
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• 2016

VR and AR are widely used in many applications to provide more immersive visualization and natural interaction for learning and experiencing virtual but realistic tasks. Energy saving is considered as one of the most important issues throughout the world in order to overcome global warming and energy crisis. In particular, the awareness of home energy saving is regarded as a first step to deal with this issue. In this paper, we suggest a new learning environment using virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) for home energy saving experience. In particular, it presents a comparative study of the user experience in home energy awareness using immersive virtual reality and mobile augmented reality. The first person user experience using immersive VR wearing head mounted display (HMD) and the third person user experience using mobile AR are implemented and systematically compared with each other in terms of the learning effect of energy saving and qualitative usability. Implementation results will be given to show the advantage and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.209-217
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• 2022

Virtual reality entered a new phase with the introduction of wearable devices represented by Oculus. This study proposes an immersive virtual reality based on Oculus Rift that enables direct immersion in virtual reality from a first-person perspective for English learning. At this point, it is meaningful to provide considerations when designing instruction for language learning through a comprehensive and integrated review of immersive virtual reality. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to find a way to maximize the application of language education in the immersive virtual world. And for the design elements for English learning through immersive virtual reality, the setting of learning theory, consideration of differences in learning, selection of learning tasks, regulation of teachers' influence, determination of types of applied senses, flexibility of design, and usage environment were suggested. By integrating the results, various discussions and directions for instructional design were presented.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.155-191
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• 2020

The aim of this study was to examine the trends (e.g., the distribution of the studies by year, country, research methods, and participants' education level) and fundamental findings [e.g., interaction in Virtual Reality (VR) environments, educational content through VR and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, learning environment in AR, etc.] regarding immersive learning technologies such as VR and AR in English Language Teaching (ELT) between 2010 and 2019. Employing a systematic review research methodology, data was gathered from 59 academic articles published in the following databases: EBSCOhost, ERIC, Web of Science, and Taylor & Francis. The studies were analyzed using a content analysis approach, and findings demonstrated that immersive learning technologies in ELT came to prominence in 2017. Mixed methods research was the most widely employed research method. The most studied language skill was vocabulary for AR and speaking for VR. The results also revealed advantages and challenges with regards to the use of immersive learning technologies in ELT. Further analysis illustrated the findings related to characteristics of immersive learning technologies in ELT. Based on this review, research and design implications for researchers and practitioners are presented.