Using high-fidelity virtual reality to study perception in freely moving observers

Scarfe, Peter; Glennerster, Andrew

doi:10.1167/15.9.3

Cited by 56 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…The variations in depth in our stimuli are very minimal in comparison with that found in natural results. The results of experiments using simple or reduced cue stimuli must therefore be treated with caution when considering our ultimate goal of understanding perception in the natural environment [67–69]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Binocular Depth Judgments on Smoothly Curved Surfaces

2016

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Binocular disparity is an important cue to depth, allowing us to make very fine discriminations of the relative depth of objects. In complex scenes, this sensitivity depends on the particular shape and layout of the objects viewed. For example, judgments of the relative depths of points on a smoothly curved surface are less accurate than those for points in empty space. It has been argued that this occurs because depth relationships are represented accurately only within a local spatial area. A consequence of this is that, when judging the relative depths of points separated by depth maxima and minima, information must be integrated across separate local representations. This integration, by adding more stages of processing, might be expected to reduce the accuracy of depth judgements. We tested this idea directly by measuring how accurately human participants could report the relative depths of two dots, presented with different binocular disparities. In the first, Two Dot condition the two dots were presented in front of a square grid. In the second, Three Dot condition, an additional dot was presented midway between the target dots, at a range of depths, both nearer and further than the target dots. In the final, Surface condition, the target dots were placed on a smooth surface defined by binocular disparity cues. In some trials, this contained a depth maximum or minimum between the target dots. In the Three Dot condition, performance was impaired when the central dot was presented with a large disparity, in line with predictions. In the Surface condition, performance was worst when the midpoint of the surface was at a similar distance to the targets, and relatively unaffected when there was a large depth maximum or minimum present. These results are not consistent with the idea that depth order is represented only within a local spatial area.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Binocular Depth Judgments on Smoothly Curved Surfaces

2016

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“…Recent advances in virtual reality (VR) and haptic device allow independent manipulations of visual and haptic inputs. Previous research has adapted such approach to understanding multi-modal sensory cue integration [Atkins et al 2001;Scarfe and Glennerster 2015]. Relatively little has been explored in using the virtual environment to measure multimodal material perception.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction between static visual cues and force-feedback on the perception of mass of virtual objects

Newport

Xiao

2018

Preprint

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We use force-feedback device and a game engine to measure the effects of material appearance on the perception of mass of virtual objects. We discover that the perceived mass is mainly determined by the ground-truth mass output by the force-feedback device. Different from the classic Material Weight Illusion (MWI), however, heavy-looking objects (e.g. steel) are consistently rated heavier than light-looking ones (e.g. fabric) with the same ground-truth mass. Analysis of the initial accelerated velocity of the movement trajectories of the virtual probe shows greater acceleration for materials with heavier rated mass. This effect is diminished when the participants lift the object for the second time, meaning that the influence of visual appearance disappears in the movement trajectories once it is calibrated by the force-feedback. We also show how the material categories are affected by both the visual appearance and the weight of the object. We conclude that visual appearance has a significant interaction with haptic force-feedback on the perception of mass and also affects the kinematics of how participants manipulate the object.CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; Empirical studies in interaction design; Empirical studies in visualization;ACM Reference FormatWenyan Bi, Jonathan Newport, and Bei Xiao. 2018. Interaction between static visual cues and force-feedback on the perception of mass of virtual objects. In Proceedings of. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 5 pages.

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“…These challenges are resolved if visual feedback in VR is based on head motion in 3D space in freely-moving subjects, giving rise to a coherent visual, idiothetic and external multisensory input, an unperturbed action-perception loop, and a full repertoire of rodent behavior, while still preserving the precise control of visual stimuli in VR setups 26 . One such freely-moving VR (fmVR) system was introduced for human subjects as the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) 27 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual Reality system for freely-moving rodents

Grosso

Graboski

Chen

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Spatial navigation, active sensing, and most cognitive functions rely on a tight link between motor output and sensory input. Virtual reality (VR) systems simulate the sensorimotor loop, allowing flexible manipulation of enriched sensory input. Conventional rodent VR systems provide 3D visual cues linked to restrained locomotion on a treadmill, leading to a mismatch between visual and most other sensory inputs, sensory-motor conflicts, as well as restricted naturalistic behavior. To rectify these limitations, we developed a VR system (ratCAVE) that provides realistic and low-latency visual feedback directly to head movements of completely unrestrained rodents. Immersed in this VR system, rats displayed naturalistic behavior by spontaneously interacting with and hugging virtual walls, exploring virtual objects, and avoiding virtual cliffs. We further illustrate the effect of ratCAVE-VR manipulation on hippocampal place fields. The newly-developed methodology enables a wide range of experiments involving flexible manipulation of visual feedback in freely-moving behaving animals.Del Grosso et al the multisensory nature of hippocampal spatial representation. This highly-immersive fmVR system can be a powerful tool for a broad range of neuroscience disciplines. RESULTS ratCAVE : VR system for freely moving rodentsWe implemented a CAVE system where a VE projection on the surface of the arena was closed-loop coupled with the real-time tracking of the head of the animal. In this setup, animals could move freely in a rectangular arena similar to that used for conventional open-field experiments, but the white-painted arena served as a projection surface. We used an array of 12 high-speed cameras (240-360 fps, NaturalPoint Inc.) to track the 3D position of the rodent's head via a rigid array of retro-reflective spheres attached to a head-mounted 3D-printed skeleton (Fig. 1c,d). This tracking system enabled us to update the rodent's head position with very high spatial (<0.1 mm) and temporal (<2.7 msec) resolution. The VE, created using opensource 3D modeling software (Blender 3D), was rendered each frame in a full 360degree arc about the rodent's head and mapped onto a 3D computer model of the arena using custom Python and OpenGL packages ( Supplementary Fig.3, Online Methods), warped in real-time to generate a fully-interactive, geometrically-accurate 3D scene (Fig. 1b). The core cube-mapping algorithm used to perform the mapping of the VE onto the projection surface was identical to those described in rodent rVR setups ( Supplementary Fig. 2a-c) 23 , but VE projection onto the surface of the arena is continuously updated according to the changing 3D position of the rodent's head ( Fig 1b), resulting in perception of a 3D VE that is stable in the real-world frame of reference that the animal is freely moving about (Fig 1c,d). The resulting image was front-projected onto the floor and slanted walls of the arena from a ceiling-mounted high-speed (240 fps) video projector ( Supplementary Fig. 4). Because the presented virtu...

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Using high-fidelity virtual reality to study perception in freely moving observers

Cited by 56 publications

References 70 publications

Binocular Depth Judgments on Smoothly Curved Surfaces

Binocular Depth Judgments on Smoothly Curved Surfaces

Interaction between static visual cues and force-feedback on the perception of mass of virtual objects

Virtual Reality system for freely-moving rodents

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