Abstract When faced with learning new algorithms, students often struggle with recognizing the details of the algorithm or with understanding the meaning of its intermediate stages and interpreting the results. These difficulties typically stem from the inherent inadequacies of using static representations to describe dynamic systems. We have developed the guided walk-through experience, Walk Me Through It, as a way for users to, not only visualize but interact, with every stage of common graph traversal algorithms, Breadth-First Search and Depth-First Search. Users must construct their own map of the room layout and connections between them by collecting room Tokens as they navigate the maze implemented with Flexible Spaces.
Jan 1, 2024
Abstract Trigonometry is important to a diverse set of fields. However, it is often a difficult topic for students to learn. This is most commonly due to a difficulty of visualizing the concepts and understanding how they are related. Currently, there are not many widespread tools that encourage the exploration and physical interaction of trigonometry. Build Your Own Trigonometric Adventure (BYOTA) aims to help students gain a better understanding of trigonometric concepts by using them to manipulate terrain geometry in a virtual reality experience. Users can build the terrain around them by modeling a trigonometric equation, view their rotations in multiple unit circle modes, and view the equations that were used to create the specific hills and valleys. They can also directly manipulate the virtual world using World-in-Miniature (WIM), which allows them to customize the terrain and place objects in the environment using a handheld 3D map. BYOTA’s objective is to enhance comprehension and encourage playful exploration of trigonometry in virtual reality, offering a concrete way to engage students with abstract mathematical concepts that they often struggle to learn.
Jan 1, 2024
Abstract In this paper, we propose a potential cybersickness mitigation technique, redirected tilting, and conduct an exploratory virtual reality (VR) study to determine whether it is possible to visually induce head tilt during virtual locomotion. Redirected tilting involves rotating the virtual environment (VE) towards the turning direction around the VR headset’s roll axis, which we hypothesize could lead users to tilt their bodies in the same direction and maintain balance during curved paths. Unlike previous techniques, like field of view (FOV) restriction or rest frames, this method could potentially reduce cybersickness by manipulating egocentric self-motion rather than modifying visual characteristics of the VE. As an initial exploration, we conducted a within-subjects study with 30 participants to evaluate the effect of redirected tilting on postural behavior. The results showed that the proposed technique was successful in eliciting head tilt, although the magnitude of rotation was not as large as we had expected. We conclude that further investigation is needed to understand the mechanics, ideal parameters, and applications of redirected tilting.
Feb 1, 2021