Shape up! Perception based body shape variation for data-driven crowds

Shi, Yinxuan; Ondřej, Jan; Wang, He; O’Sullivan, Carol

doi:10.1109/vhcie.2017.7935623

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…To this end, various strategies have been proposed ranging from using different representative body shapes while avoiding extreme variations (Shi et al, 2017) over avoiding appearance clones by incorporating diverse accessories and color variations in clothing, hair, and skin tone, especially for heads and upper torsos (McDonnell et al, 2008;McDonnell et al, 2009), to avoiding motion clones using out-of-sync motion timings to effectively achieving visual distinction (McDonnell et al, 2009). For smaller crowds (8-24 characters), Pražák and O'Sullivan (2011) thereby suggest using three distinct motions, with timing variations for each character.…”

Section: Virtual Pedestrian Flowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wayfinding in immersive virtual environments as social activity supported by virtual agents

Bönsch,

Ehret,

Rupp

et al. 2024

Front. Virtual Real.

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Effective navigation and interaction within immersive virtual environments (IVEs) rely on thorough scene exploration. Therefore, wayfinding is essential, assisting users in comprehending their surroundings, planning routes, and making informed decisions. Based on real-life observations, wayfinding is, thereby, not only a cognitive process but also a social activity profoundly influenced by the presence and behaviors of others. In virtual environments, these “others” are virtual agents (VAs), defined as anthropomorphic computer-controlled characters, who enliven the environment and can serve as background characters or direct interaction partners. However, less research has been conducted to explore how to efficiently use VAs as social wayfinding support. In this paper, we aim to assess and contrast user experience, user comfort, and acquisition of scene knowledge through a between-subjects study involving n = 60 participants across three distinct wayfinding conditions in one slightly populated urban environment: (i) unsupported wayfinding, (ii) strong social wayfinding using a virtual supporter who incorporates guiding and accompanying elements while directly impacting the participants’ wayfinding decisions, and (iii) weak social wayfinding using flows of VAs that subtly influence the participants’ wayfinding decisions by their locomotion behavior. Our work is the first to compare the impact of VAs’ behavior in virtual reality on users’ scene exploration, including spatial awareness, scene comprehension, and comfort. The results show the general utility of social wayfinding support, while underscoring the superiority of the strong type. Nevertheless, further exploration of weak social wayfinding as a promising technique is needed. Thus, our work contributes to the enhancement of VAs as advanced user interfaces, increasing user acceptance and usability.

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Section: Virtual Pedestrian Flowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wayfinding in immersive virtual environments as social activity supported by virtual agents

Bönsch,

Ehret,

Rupp

et al. 2024

Front. Virtual Real.

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“…In addition, Shi et al [SOWO17] implement a data-driven approach to generate a variety of body shapes using the body measurements and demographic data available in the CAESAR database. They found, by conducting perceptual studies, that the height and girth (waist circumference) measurements were the most salient features that differentiate people from each other.…”

Section: Skeleton and Body Meshmentioning

confidence: 99%

Authoring Virtual Crowds: A Survey

Lemonari

Blanco

Charalambous

et al. 2022

Computer Graphics Forum

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Recent advancements in crowd simulation unravel a wide range of functionalities for virtual agents, delivering highly-realistic, natural virtual crowds. Such systems are of particular importance to a variety of applications in fields such as: entertainment (e.g., movies, computer games); architectural and urban planning; and simulations for sports and training. However, providing their capabilities to untrained users necessitates the development of authoring frameworks. Authoring virtual crowds is a complex and multi-level task, varying from assuming control and assisting users to realise their creative intents, to delivering intuitive and easy to use interfaces, facilitating such control. In this paper, we present a categorisation of the authorable crowd simulation components, ranging from high-level behaviours and path-planning to local movements, as well as animation and visualisation. We provide a review of the most relevant methods in each area, emphasising the amount and nature of influence that the users have over the final result. Moreover, we discuss the currently available authoring tools (e.g., graphical user interfaces, drag-and-drop), identifying the trends of early and recent work. Finally, we suggest promising directions for future research that mainly stem from the rise of learning-based methods, and the need for a unified authoring framework.

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“…While these work focus on how motion or appearance clones appear to the viewer, Shi et al [2017] studied how variety in body shape can be used to create a cost-effective realistic crowd. An interesting point is raised about how distinctive the selected samples should be.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%