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Realism of a Virtual Reality simulation can be improved by use of physical objects tracked in real time. The paper presents possibility of using low-cost FDM process, realized by MakerBot Replicator 2X machine, in comparison with a professional one to build tooling for a simulation of ultrasound examination procedure. The objects were manufactured on two different machines out of ABS material, 3D scanned for accuracy testing and finally possibilities of their use in a VR system were evaluated.

The Virtual Reality technology is nowadays dynamically developed, thanks to appearance of low-cost devices and interest by large companies related to entertainment, communication and visualization. It is especially important in medicine, as it allows a much wider access to tools such as Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy. The paper presents possibilities of using low-cost VR devices in curing phobias by exposure to a stress-generating factor in an immersive virtual environment. Several use scenarios are presented for a simple application aimed at exposing a patient to fear of heights. A test group consisted of healthy individuals. To evaluate level of immersion and fear caused by the application, a heart rate monitor was used, to record heartbeat in real time.

This paper presents practical results of a new, open approach to knowledge formalization and management in Virtual Reality applications for use in industry, especially in design and training purposes. Idea of applications with open access to knowledge is presented. Three cases of VR systems are shown – two for the design and one for training, all implemented in industrial companies in Poland. The focus is put on concepts of storing and easy editing knowledge in the applications, in a way to ensure self-sufficiency of applications in a given company after deployment. Dedicated tools for knowledge edition are presented, along with selected results of their implementation in scope of effectiveness of expanding the knowledge base.

The paper presents possibility of using a low-cost Fused Deposition Modelling process, realized by MakerBot Replicator 2X machine, in comparison with a professional one – realized by Dimension BST 1200 machine – to build tooling for an innovative training simulation, in accordance with Industry 4.0 guidelines. A physical object was manufactured and then tracked to manipulate in a virtual environment – it was a manual head used during the procedure. The objects were manufactured on two different machines out of ABS material, 3D scanned for accuracy testing and finally possibilities of their use in a VR system were evaluated.

The paper presents a process of adaptation of the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR devices for needs of immersive training application. The process was described on the example of virtual 3D human body atlas, created using EON Studio software. The aim of this application is to facilitate and make it more attractive to learn anatomy for students of medical disciplines. Possibilities of the application are, among others: selection of visibility level of certain organs or groups of organs, creation of complex sections in 3 planes and launching animations of selected organs. Application of each selected device required additional programming work. The work included both adaptation of Graphical User Interface for different display resolutions, as well as preparation of communication between integrated orientation tracking systems and the application, because none of the selected low-cost HMDs has a position tracking system, to allow navigation in the virtual space, two low-cost solutions were proposed, as well as traditional approach in form of a professional tracking system. First of the proposed low-cost solutions is application of a dedicated, customized controller built in the PUT VR Laboratory using commercial electronics and 3D printing technologies. The second solution is controlling the navigation via specific gestures recognized by the Kinect low-cost tracking device. After application was developed, a group of students tested all possibilities of interaction with the virtual environment using a professional HMD and both low-cost display and tracking solutions. During the evaluation performed by the test group, features like field of view, weight of devices and general impressions and feeling after prolonged use were taken into consideration. Intuitiveness of the proposed navigation solutions was evaluated separately. The evaluation performed by the test group can be used during work on subsequent versions of the medical educational application and design of new peripheral devices.

Nowadays future designers are required to explore different fields of engineering (e.g. basis of design and operation of machines, methodology of process design, characteristics of phases of a product life cycle, ergonomics, etc.) in order to obtain sufficient knowledge about the product, the problems of its operation and related services. Currently, there is a strong tendency to take into account the impact of a product on the natural environment. The handling of products that are withdrawn from usage is one of the big problems emerging in a modern society. One of the possibilities to solve these problems is taking into account the environmental issues at the very early stage of the product design. Authors created the methodology to include recycling requirements in the phase of design of the product with support of the CAD 3D systems14,15. In details, the method of ecological-oriented product assessment during the design process was implemented in CAD 3D environment in order to improve the skills and knowledge of future designers about environmental aspects of the designed product12. In order to enhance the effectiveness of the training of designers, authors decided to use immersive Virtual Reality (VR) technologies that are more and more often used as advanced training systems. The user/trained person can explore Virtual Environment (VE) for educational and exercise purposes5. Immersive VR technologies are gaining wider use as engineering design tools to support the product design phase because of their ability to deliver an immersive and user friendly environment that can be used as digital test-bed for prototypes of the product30. Paper briefly describes the analysis of the recycling of selected product designed in the CAD 3D system with the support of Virtual Reality technologies that were based on the recycling product model (RpM) and the agent technology12,14,15. The RpM, developed during the geometric modelling phase, includes the data necessary for a comprehensive product recyclability evaluation already at the design stage. This approach allows designer to select appropriate solutions that facilitate future disassembly and to choose materials most suitable in terms of future recycling. The analysis allows to make an assessment of the susceptibility of the product for recycling using the agent system. The agent system, in accordance with the recycling product model (RpM) that was implemented in the 3D CAD system, is an innovative tool for the designer to enable a comprehensive assessment of the product in terms of its susceptibility to recycling. Future designers (students of mechanical engineering fields) gained possibility to improve their skills and knowledge in the field of ecodesign through the immersive trainings of virtual product design for recycling. Applying the Virtual Reality technologies for training of the future designers was aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of training mainly due to immersion and interaction with the virtual environment and to explore the product before it is constructed, as well as provide learning of the environments in which the finished product will be operated. As the example of the recycling-oriented virtual product design, case study of the design of small household appliance is presented. Participants of the immersive training (students) have a possibility to design the product in the Virtual Reality and select the optimal variant, which meets all environmental requirements. Short description of the recycling modeling (creation of connections, defining the extended materials and disassembly attributes) as well as an example of recycling assessment such as calculation of recycling assessment measures or providing tips and suggestions generated by agent system is also presented.

The paper presents a Virtual Reality system developed as a result of cooperation of the University and an industrial company – a major city bus manufacturer. Main objective of work presented in the paper was to obtain a tool suitable for daily work with the clients on configuration of visual features of customized city buses. A city bus can have more than 100 visible features (options), which can be changed to obtain virtually infinite configuration possibilities. Visual representation of many of these features was largely unavailable before the presented work was commenced, resulting in certain problems in process of communication between salesmen and clients. The developed Virtual Reality system allows for visual representation of the bus functions during the configuration process, so it solves many problems in the client-company communication. It is also a knowledge base of all visual options which can be changed in scope of the configuration process – knowledge from many departments of the company was used to develop it, including knowledge unknown to representatives of sales and marketing. As a result, the immersive configurator can be effectively used to train salesmen and marketing representatives in terms of technical knowledge about customization capabilities of the offered product. The paper presents shortly the overview and functions of the whole system. The system is a large, multi-modal solution built of many software and hardware components and is also integrated with other, existing systems. It allows to display high-quality images of a configured bus in real-time in stereoscopic 3D on a large screen, as well as using professional Head-Mounted Display or low-cost systems (e.g. Oculus Rift) for a virtual walk inside the configured bus, with full integration between all the visualization instances. Interaction with the system is divided into several groups of functions – configuration, navigation, animation and extra functions. Different devices are used for interaction: joystick, gyroscopic mouse and gesture recognition systems like Kinect can be used for navigation and animation, while most of the configuration and extra functions are launched using a graphical user interface, operated using a touch screen or a tablet. Efficiency of the system in the visual configuration process was confirmed by representatives of the company. Capabilities of the system for education was tested using a sample of non-technical users from the sales and marketing department, using the system and then leaving their impressions in a survey study. It confirmed high effectiveness of the system in terms of presenting variability of the product features in a clear visual way. Immersive aspect of the system was also valued very high – usage of the stereoscopic 3D and Head-Mounted Device allowed to present the bus in a more realistic way than it was possible earlier. In the near future, the system will be fully developed and implemented to use in the sales process.

In the Poznan University of Technology Chair of Production Engineering and Management, a Virtual Reality –Rapid Prototyping team has been active for many years and one of the studied activities is possibility of VR use in classes for higher education. As a result of cooperation with one of the medical universities in the region, an educational application has been developed, as a didactic aid during anatomy, physiology and pathology courses. During the test use, the application has been found quite interesting for both the lecturers and the students. It allowed, among other things, to freely slice the virtual human body and showing and hiding selected groups of organs, in order to allow detailed inspection of human anatomy by the user. This work continues in the study presented in this paper –they are aimed at expanding the simulation functionalities and allowing to conduct a training for the ultrasound examination. In many previous studies, it was proven that possibility of tracking the user's movements allows the simulation realism to be improved. It is a result of the phenomenon of immersion of the user in the virtual world. The immersion improves quality of the conducted virtual training and allows to better use the abilities learned during the course. In case of the ultrasound scanner, it is necessary to track both the position and the orientation of the device head, for proper generation of the virtual image of the insides of the human body. The paper discusses a process of adaptation of a head used in the ultrasound scan to application in the training simulation. Process of preparation and adaptation of the head geometry was described, along with a process of preparation of virtual and then physical prototypes using the 3D Printing technology. The prepared prototypes were covered with markers of the optical tracking system. Proper arrangement of the markers was implemented in the database and scenarios of work were prepared, to check correctness of gathering information about the ultrasound scanner head orientation and position in the three-dimensional space. Developed solutions were verified on a test group of users. Obtained results were presented in a form allowing their easy interpretation.

The paper presents selection process of an appropriate engine to build a dedicated visual configuration system based on Virtual Reality, in cooperation with a city bus producer. The aim was to build a methodology of selection of such a software for a large visual configuration system and to validate it in practice, as there are no available software benchmarks in VR branch. To aid the decision making process, the Analytical Hierarchy Process method was proposed. Several most popular engines were taken into account. Final solution using the selected engine is also presented in the paper as a practical validation example.

The paper presents development process and studies of a digital, Virtual Reality based tool for assisting the decision making process in configuration of driver’s workplace in city buses. The development methodology is presented with an end result. The studies, carried out after implementation in an industrial company, were based on human-computer interaction tests and evaluation comparative to previous configuration methods available in the company. The assumed and presented methodology based on Knowledge-Based Engineering allowed to build and implement the tool very rapidly. The post-implementation studies allowed to find that employees of different divisions in a company perceive such a tool in very different ways, forming various directions of future development.

Effective medical and biomedical engineering education is an important problem. Traditional methods are difficult and costly. That is why Virtual Reality is often used for that purpose. Educational medical VR is a well-developed IT field, with many available hardware and software solutions. Current solutions are prepared without methodological approach. As a result, each VR system used for medical purposes is unique - there is no standardization, which leads to increased development time and costs. The paper presents an original methodology that can be used for building immersive virtual reality (VR) applications dedicated to training medical skills. The methodology is named “knowledge-oriented medical virtual reality” (KOMVR), as it uses basic knowledge-engineering tools during processes of planning, building and verification of interactive educational solutions. The paper shows successive stages of the methodology and the tools used for its execution. Effectiveness of the proposed methodology is illustrated with a simple example – a human body atlas. Major time reduction can be achieved while using the methodology - time reduction in the presented case was from 50 to 14 working days. The proposed innovative approach can increase effectiveness of preparation of educational VR solutions in medicine, but also in other branches of engineering.

Virtual reality (VR) may be used as an innovative educational tool. However, in order to fully exploit its potential, it is essential to achieve the effect of immersion. To more completely submerge the user in a virtual environment, it is necessary to ensure that the user’s actions are directly translated into the image generated by the application, which can be achieved by means of various devices, such as tracking systems and VR headsets, as well as haptic devices. Recently, VR has become the focus of e-entertainment, which has resulted in the appearance on the market of numerous, low-cost peripheral devices. The paper discusses the examples of potential applications and steps necessary to adapt low-cost devices to immersive educational applications.

The paper presents studies on design and implementation of a complex Virtual Reality system for product design. Main objective of work presented in the paper was to obtain a tool suitable for on-line work with the clients on configuration of visual features of customized city buses. A complex product such as a city bus can have more than 100 visible features (options), which can be changed to obtain infinite configuration possibilities. The paper presents the overview and functions, as well as development process of the created system. Efficiency of the system in the visual configuration process was confirmed by representatives of the company. Capabilities of the system were tested using a sample of users from all the company departments involved in the bus design process. It confirmed high effectiveness of the system in terms of presenting variability of the product features in a clear visual way and improvement of the whole configuration process.

The paper presents problems related to measurement accuracy of tracking systems, which are widely used in immersive simulations based on Virtual Reality technology. Possibility of tracking movements of the user makes the simulation in virtual environment more realistic. This is very important in case of training simulations of situations, where mistake of an operator would threaten the life and health of himself or other people or could lead to substantial material losses. The authors’ many years of experience in creating interactive Virtual Reality applications allows them to conclude, that possibility of use of professional tracking systems is often not possible for educational facilities like schools or universities due to budget reasons. Professional tracking systems are usually more accurate and have more programming support of their use in Virtual Reality applications than the low-cost solutions. However, low-cost devices are often tens of times cheaper than the professional systems. The research presented in the paper is an attempt of answering the question – how the immersion level related to accuracy of position and orientation representation of real object in a virtual environment influences the evaluation of usefulness of a given tracking system for training applications. A particular attention was paid to tracking of user's movement, which allows him to naturally interact with the computer generated environment. Displaying a simulation reacting properly and smoothly to real movements performed by the user will allow him to develop the most necessary reflexes, which would not be possible using only non-natural interaction devices, such as mouse or keyboard. On the other hand, development of improper reflexes related to user's position being wrongly read can bring more harm than benefit to the training process. The paper presents results of study of accuracy of one of the tracking systems available on the market – the PST 55 system. This device uses retro-active markers, which are widely used also in measurement systems not dedicated to use in the VR system. The real position of tracked objects was verified using an industrial photogrammetric measurement system TRITOP from GOM company. The results of the comparative study allowed to determine how accurate is the studied tracking system and how the accuracy affects the feeling of immersion.