In October 2023 we were able to present a VR demo of our VTB at the fall synergy meeting of the DLR Explorer initiatives. This was a complete success, as there was a lot of interest and positive feedback. The demo included our Mars surface based on HiRISE data, natural phenomena such as sandstorms, VR locomotion and interaction, as well as the latest versions of the swarm members exploring the environment.
The team is happy to announce that our paper entitled “How Observers Perceive Teleport Visualizations in Virtual Environments” was presented and published at the ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI) on October 13, 2023. The goal of our research was to investigate how the popular VR locomotion method teleportation can be visualized and understood by other participants in a shared multi-user environment, such as our VTB. Our results have shown that a visualization, for example by means of a walking animation of the avatar, can lead to significant advantages with regard to important aspects such as presence and spatial awareness. With these findings and a corresponding implementation of suitable visualizations in the VTB, we will be able to significantly increase its user-friendliness in multi-user mode.
The Vamex team used the fall synergy meeting of the DLR Explorer initiatives to hold another productive working meeting, to present the progress of the individual sub-projects and partners, and to talk in more detail – in person – about the upcoming milestones. In conclusion, it can be said that all sub-projects have made very good progress, some exciting but solvable challenges remain and the team is still highly motivated.
