An Aerial Mixed-Reality Environment for First-Person-View Drone Flying

Examining the Influence of Using First-Person View Drones as Auxiliary Devices in Matte Painting Courses on College Students’ Continuous Learning Intention

In terms of the teaching process of matte painting, it is essential for students to develop a sound understanding of the relationship between virtual and physical environments. In this study, first-person view (FPV) drones are applied to matte painting courses to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching, and to propose more effective design suggestions for FPV drones that are more suitable for teaching. This provides students with a better learning environment using a digital education system. The results of the study indicate that the flow experience, learning interest, and continuous learning intention of students who use FPV drones in matte painting are significantly greater than those of students who only utilize traditional teaching methods. Furthermore, the technology incentive model (TIM) was developed in this study after being verified by the structural equation model. The results demonstrate that the second-order construct ‘technology incentive’ comprising perceived interactivity, perceived vividness, and novel experience positively influence students’ learning interest and continuous learning intentions under the mediation of flow experience.

In-Device Feedback in Immersive Head-Mounted Displays for Distance Perception During Teleoperation of Unmanned Ground Vehicles

In recent years, Virtual Reality (VR) Head-Mounted Displays (HMD) have been used to provide an immersive, first-person view in real-time for the remote-control of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV). One critical issue is that it is challenging to perceive the distance of obstacles surrounding the vehicle from 2D views in the HMD, which deteriorates the control of UGV. Conventional distance indicators used in HMD take up screen space which leads clutter on the display and can further reduce situation awareness of the physical environment. To address the issue, in this paper we propose off-screen in-device feedback using vibro-tactile and/or light-visual cues to provide real-time distance information for the remote control of UGV. Results from a study show a significantly better performance with either feedback type, reduced workload and improved usability in a driving task that requires continuous perception of the distance between the UGV and its environmental objects or obstacles. Our findings show a solid case for in-device vibro-tactile and/or light-visual feedback to support remote operation of UGVs that highly relies on distance perception of objects.

Multi-User Drone Flight Training in Mixed Reality

The development of services and applications involving drones is promoting the growth of the unmanned-aerial-vehicle industry. Moreover, the supply of low-cost compact drones has greatly contributed to the popularization of drone flying. However, flying first-person-view (FPV) drones requires considerable experience because the remote pilot views a video transmitted from a camera mounted on the drone. In this paper, we propose a remote training system for FPV drone flying in mixed reality. Thereby, beginners who are inexperienced in FPV drone flight control can practice under the guidance of remote experts.