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Collaboration between a helper and a worker in a 3D collaborative virtual environment usually requires real-time information sharing, since the worker relies on the timely assistance from the helper. In contrast, collaboration between workers requires them to shift their attention between independent tasks and dependent tasks. In worker-worker collaborations, a real-time updating technique could create excess information, which may be a distraction. In this paper, we compare different information sharing techniques and determine an efficient technique for the collaboration between workers. In our user experiment, participants performed a floor plan design task in a designer and engineer pairing on a desktop VR environment. The results showed that the proposed information sharing technique, in which objects are updated based on local users' actions, is more suitable than real-time updates. In addition, we discuss design implications that can be applied to different collaborative scenarios.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized in part by core deficits in social interaction and communication. A collaborative virtual environment (CVE), which is a computer-based, distributed, virtual space for multiple users to interact with one another and/or with virtual items, has the potential to support flexible, safe, and peer-based social interactions. In this article, we presented the design of a CVE system, called CoMove, with the ultimate goals of measuring and potentially enhancing collaborative interactions and verbal communication of children with ASD when they play collaborative puzzle games with their typically developing (TD) peers in remote locations. CoMove has two distinguishing characteristics: (i) the ability to promote important collaborative behaviors (including information sharing, sequential interactions, and simultaneous interactions) and to provide real-time feedback based on users’ game performance; as well as (ii) an objective way to measure and index important aspects of collaboration and verbal-communication skills during system interaction. A feasibility study with 14 pairs—7 ASD/TD pairs and 7 TD/TD pairs—was conducted to initially test the feasibility of CoMove. The results of the study validated the system feasibility and suggested its potential to index important aspects of collaboration and verbal communication.

In recent years, several multi-user virtual environments (VEs) have been developed to promote motivation and exercise intensity in motor rehabilitation. While competitive VEs have been extensively evaluated, collaborative and competitive rehabilitation VEs have seen relatively little study. Therefore, this article presents an evaluation of a VE for post-stroke arm rehabilitation that mimics everyday kitchen tasks and can be used either solo or collaboratively. Twenty subacute stroke survivors exercised with the VE for four sessions, with the first and third sessions involving solo exercise and the other two involving collaborative exercise. Exercise intensity was measured using inertial sensors while motivation was measured with questionnaires. Results showed high motivation and exercise intensity over all four sessions, and 11 of 20 participants preferred collaborative over solo exercise while only 4 preferred solo exercise. However, there were no differences in motivation, exercise duration, or exercise intensity between solo and collaborative sessions. Thus, we cannot currently claim that collaborative exercises are beneficial for upper limb rehabilitation. Future studies should evaluate other collaborative VE designs in different settings (e.g., at home) and with different participant pairs (e.g., patient-unimpaired) to find effective ways to utilize collaborative exercises in motor rehabilitation.

Programa de Mestrado em Gestão e Práticas Educacionais (PROGEPE) da UNINOVE Este artigo analisa os limites e possibilidades das Tecnologias Digitais de Informação e Comunicação (TDICs) para a formação continuada de professores na modalidade a distância. Os dados utilizados advêm de uma pesquisa realizada com 26 sujeitos que compuseram a equipe de formação do Programa Escola de Gestores (PNEG) na Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP) no período de 2013 a 2015. As entrevistas foram codificadas através da utilização do software NVivo®. Os dados analisados revelam que tais experiências promovem um ambiente virtual colaborativo de aprendizagem e reflexão a partir das vivências que os formadores trazem consigo. As dificuldades e os desafios enfrentados pelos formadores relacionam-se ao trabalho virtual, à distribuição do tempo e a fluência digital. Em relação às TDICs, a mediação que se dá através dessas tecnologias tem repercutido positivamente em suas práticas pedagógicas, em função do intercâmbio de saberes e experiências entre a educação presencial e a EaD. This article analyzes the limits and possibilities of Digital Information and Communication Technologies (TDICs) for the continuous training of teachers in distance education. The data collected derived from a research carried out with 26 subjects that composed the team of the Programa Escola de Gestores (PNEG) at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) from 2013 to 2015. The interviews were coded using the software NVivo®. The data analyzed reveal that such experiences promote a collaborative virtual environment of learning and reflection based on the experiences that the trainers bring with them. The difficulties and challenges faced by the trainers are related to virtual work, the distribution of time and digital fluency. In relation to the TDICs, mediation through these technologies has had a positive impact on their pedagogical practices due to the exchange of knowledges and experiences between traditional and distance education. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Purpose The paper aims to present the processing pipeline of an assembly immersive simulation application which can manage the interaction between the virtual scene and user using stereoscopic display and haptic devices. A new set of elements are integrated in a Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) and validated using an approach based on subjective and objective users’ performance criteria. The developed application is intended for Assembly/Disassembly (A/D) analysis, planning and training. Design/methodology/approach A mobility module based on contact information is used to handle the assembly components’ movements through real-time management of collision detection and kinematically constraint guidance. Information on CVE architecture, modules and application configuration process are presented. Impact of device type (3 degrees of freedom (DoFs) vs 6 DoFs) over user’s experience is evaluated. Parameters (number of assembled components and components assembly time) are measured for each user and each haptic device, and results are compared and discussed. Findings Test results proved the efficiency of using a mobility module based on predefined kinematic constraints for reducing the complexity of collision detection algorithms in real-time assembly haptic simulations. Also, experiments showed that, generally, users performed better with 3 DoFs haptic device compared to 6 DoFs haptic equipment. Originality/value The proposed immersive application automates the kinematical joints inference from 3D computer-aided design (CAD) assembly models and integrates it within a haptic-based virtual environment, for increasing the efficiency of A/D process simulations.

As the prevalence of chronic diseases increase, there is a need for consumer-centric health informatics applications that assist individuals with disease self-management skills. However, due to the cost of development of these applications, there is also a need to build a disease agnostic architecture so that they could be reused for any chronic disease. This paper describes the architecture of a collaborative virtual environment (VE) platform, LIVE©, that was developed to teach self-management skills and provide social support to those individuals with type 2 diabetes. However, a backend database allows for the application to be easily reused for any chronic disease. We tested its usability in the context of a larger randomized controlled trial of its efficacy. The usability was scored as ‘good’ by half of the participants in the evaluation. Common errors in the testing and solutions to address initial usability issues are discussed. Overall, LIVE© represents a usable and generalizable platform that will be adapted to other chronic diseases and health needs in future research and applications.

Many organizational analysis tasks are solved by collaborating teams. In technology-mediated collaborations, enabling relevant visual cues is a core issue with existing technology. We explore whether avatars can provide relevant cues in collaborative virtual environments. To do so, we develop a research prototype for a collaborative virtual environment that utilises avatars to improve workspace awareness in collaborative tasks. We test this solution through two studies, qualitative and quantitative, in which participants have to collaborate to jointly validate and correct a diagrammatic model of operational procedures.Our evaluations provide both positive and negative results about the proposed prototype. Collaboration patterns changed and became significantly easier, but, task performance was only slightly improved. Together, these findings inform both the ongoing development of collaborative 3D virtual environments and the role of technology-mediated collaboration for validating and fixing models of processes. We present design principles for 3D virtual environment collaboration technology for process diagram creation and validation.We present a proof-of-concept implementation of the technology.We present findings from two studies of collaborative validation of a process diagram, qualitative and quantitative.

This paper describes a design of a collaborative virtual environment (CVE) for training security agents in big events. The CVE was modelled with Autodesk 3ds Max, while Unity 3D was used to create the terrain and implement the features that make up a virtual environment. The Brazilian soccer stadium known as Maracana and its surroundings were chosen as the real counterparts of the CVE. The usability of the CVE was evaluated through simulations involving security agents dealing with threats related to suspects carrying radioactive material in big events. In order to perform these simulations, we use the same procedures used during 2014 FIFA World Cup and planned to be used in Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The main objective of this work is to verify the feasibility of designing a CVE and its usability for training security agents involved in big events issues. Results indicated that the proposed CVE has been successful concerning both, design and usability, besides of helping to improve the ability of each member of the security team on performing his duty.

Research problem: The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the cultural intelligence of a dyad (a team of two persons) on its global virtual collaboration processes and outcomes. Research question: Does a dyad's cultural intelligence have an effect on global virtual collaboration processes and outcomes? If yes, which effects does that cultural intelligence have? Literature review: We review literature on the management of cultural diversity in global virtual collaboration and cultural intelligence. The literature suggests that cultural diversity in global virtual teams is mainly managed with rigid approaches, which are ineffective in many situations. Leveraging cultural intelligence has the potential to improve global virtual collaboration. However, its effects at the team level or in a virtual setting are not yet clear. Methodology: We used a collaboration simulation with 70 participants recruited from two public universities in China and Germany to study the effects of cultural intelligence. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through questionnaires, voice recorders, and computer logs. Bale's interaction process analysis was used to code the voice recordings, and ordinary least-squares regression was used to test the hypotheses. Results and conclusions: The results indicate that cultural intelligence has an effect on global virtual collaboration; the lower cultural intelligence and the higher cultural intelligence in a dyad exert different effects on global virtual collaboration. Specifically, the lower cultural intelligence significantly influences the frequency of collaborative behaviors, which further influence group satisfaction. In contrast, the higher cultural intelligence significantly influences the deliverable quality. The findings advance the understanding of the effects of cultural intelligence at a dyad level and on proximal behavioral outcomes. The study has practical implications for global virtual collaboration practitioners and collaborative virtual environment designers. The study is limited by using student subjects and a self-report measure of cultural intelligence, as well as by examining global virtual teams in their simplest form. Future studies are suggested to examine contingency factors on the relationships between cultural intelligence and global virtual collaboration processes and outcomes.

This paper presents the system architecture of a collaborative virtual environment in which distributed multidisciplinary teams involved in space exploration activities come together and explore areas of scientific interest of a planet for future missions. The aim is to reduce the current challenges of distributed scientific and engineering meetings that prevent the exploitation of\ud their collaborative potential, as, at present, expertise, tools and datasets are fragmented. This paper investigates the functional characteristics of a software framework that addresses these challenges following the design science research methodology in the context of the space industry and research.\ud An implementation of the proposed architecture and a validation process with end users, based on the execution of different use cases, are described. These use cases cover relevant aspects of real science analysis and operation, including planetary data visualization, as the system aims at being used in future European missions. This validation suggests that the system has the \ud potential to enhance the way space scientists will conduct space science research in the future.

Recent advances in the field of Virtual Reality (VR) using Head Mounted Display (HMD) has presented a new medium for immersive experiences. Designing for this medium does have its challenges, and designers and developers must adopt new design processes and pipeline for creating and manipulating virtual spaces in VR. There have been several works of research within similar fields of 3D manipulation with an HMD, but recent technological strides demand new efforts to translate prior knowledge toward the development of new and innovative tools. In this paper, we propose the design and implementation of a web-based authoring tool that exploits VR technology in the creation of the virtual spaces using an immersive Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE). The purpose is a multi-user collaboration platform for the web browser adaptable to a wide variety of cases and purposes and which allows multiple and dissimilar stakeholders to create and manipulate virtual spaces in collaboration, either recreate real-world scenes or construct new digital environments using their imagination.

The number of social VR applications-or applications that support social interaction between users in virtual reality-has grown considerably in recent years. A consequence of this growth is that the state of social VR application design has become increasingly obfuscated, which complicates identification of design trends, best practices, and uncommon features that are perhaps worthy of wider adoption. To help address this problem, this paper presents a taxonomy of social VR application design choices as informed by 29 commercial and prototypical applications in the literature. Discussion of the taxonomy highlights novel features of research prototypes that could potentially enrich the social experience in commercially available applications. The paper concludes by considering how the taxonomy can guide future design of social VR applications, and next steps for refining the taxonomy.

Collaborative virtual environment groupware is—despite of notable research efforts over several years—still not common in users’ workplaces. Reasons are high costs of engaging in collaboration next to the loss of information and capabilities that people enjoy in co-located settings. Low-fidelity prototyping is a way for co-located teams to create joint understandings and to gather feedback in early design stages. When it comes to geographically dispersed teams, dedicated tools are required that help to fulfill tasks at hand, while enabling team members as much as possible to apply working modes known from co-located settings. We present a web browser-based collaborative virtual environment that supports the joint real time creation of three-dimensional low-fidelity prototypes. It is a cross-platform application that runs on a multitude of hardware devices. While focusing on usage with virtual reality hardware, users may also freely participate when there are only traditional input and output devices available. The system provides enhanced awareness through visual remote user embodiment combined with spatial audio communication.

With the availability of powerful and affordable Augmented Reality (AR) devices, scenarios have become popular in which people wearing AR devices are supported by remote experts. These experts often use 2D peripherals to access the video feed of the 3D head mounted device (HMD) and to augment it with verbal or digital information. This raises the question whether tools that work for these scenarios also work for remote consultations. We conducted a study to (re-)evaluate these tools in a furniture sales consultation context. We focused on the consultant side of these settings and explored how the use of different pointing methods and perspectives affect different situations during a consultation. For this, we developed and evaluated a prototype with ten furniture store workers. Initial results show that while most usability and task load scores were even, the participants reported clear favorites for certain settings. We use these results to derive design recommendations for similar future projects.

We present a novel collaborative virtual reality system that offers multiple immersive 3D views at large 3D scenes. The physical setup consists of two synchronized multi-user 3D displays: a tabletop and a large vertical projection screen. These displays afford different presentations of the shared 3D scene. The wall display lends itself to the egocentric exploration at 1:1 scale, while the tabletop affords an allocentric overview. Additionally, handheld 3D portals facilitate the personal exploration of the scene, the comparison of views, and the exchange with others. Our developments enable seamless 3D interaction across these independent 3D views. This requires the simultaneous representation of user input in the different viewing contexts. However, the resulting interactions cannot be executed independently. The application must coordinate the interactions and resolve potential ambiguities to provide plausible effects. We analyze and document the challenges of seamless 3D interaction across multiple independent viewing windows, propose a high-level software design to realize the necessary functionality, and apply the design to a set of interaction tools. Our setup was tested in a formal user study, which revealed general advantages of collaborative 3D data exploration with multiple views in terms of user preference, comfort, and task performance.

Using a collaborative virtual environment (CVE) can reduce the barriers of remote communication, which makes CVEs being increasingly used to support collaborative work between spatially dispersed collaborators. Augmented reality (AR) builds a bridge between working in real and virtual environment, which makes AR a candidate technology to implement CVEs. To structure this research field and to identify possible lacks of research, this paper proposes a design space of CVEs using AR. Therefore, we mapped described solutions in research literature onto the CVE's definition, which considers user-roles as well as benefits gained by AR. Additionally, we concentrate on the consistency of using specific keywords in the field. By means of the gained design space, we identified certain gaps in research and present potential next research topics in the field.

This paper reflects on a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in the context of architecture, urban planning and design. The paper aims to critically assess the ability of virtual environments to support experiential online learning. It contributes to the literature by providing the experimental results of implementing the TERF virtual world for undergraduate and graduate Built Environment courses. TERF virtual world provides videos and other communication tools to support collaboration among students. Feedback on the usage and functionality of this 3D virtual platform was collected from students through post evaluation surveys. This experiment provided opportunities to facilitate team communication and a route to more collaborative leaning. It is also discussed the strengths and limitations of the 3D collaborative virtual environment to support deeper learning environment.

The use of collaborative virtual environments facilitates communication, coordination and cooperation within a group of people. In the field of information and communications technology (ICT), collaborative virtual environments have been developed to support the learning of programming. In this work, we report an empirical study (controlled experiment) which assess the efficiency and cost of detecting defects in instrumented programs with and without the support of an intelligent collaborative virtual environment (ICVE). The ICVE was used as part of a programming course at undergraduate level. The results suggest an equivalent efficiency in defect detection for both types of participants, those who used the ICVE (3.76 observed defects per hour) and those who worked in a traditional manner (4.07 observed defects per hour). With regard to cost, it was observed that participants who used the ICVE completed the activities within a slightly shorter time frame (49.25 minutes) than those who worked without the environment (52.90 minutes); however, the difference was not significant. It was observed that with regard to efficiency and cost, for this type of task (the detection of defects), working virtually through an ICVE versus working ad hoc (in a tradition manner, at the same time and in the same place) yields equivalent results. When collaborative work cannot be done in a traditional way, the use an ICVE is an alternative approach equally effective.

paper we evaluate Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) in terms of network latency. Network Latency main requirements, given in the literature for CVEs, have been summarized. We also discuss effects of network latency on users" performance in the CVEs. Different factors can improve, by minimizing overall network latency, the performance of users in the CVEs. This review provides a comprehensive inside look to network latency in the CVEs and will help the researchers to adopt a network, with minimum latency, for their CVEs. The algorithms and ideas, suggested by the researchers, to be adopted by the CVEs to minimize network latency in virtual environment, are also discussed critically. Reducing network latency will ultimately improve the overall efficiency of CVEs.

Avatar facial expression and animation in 3D Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) systems are reconstructed through a complex manipulation of all details that compose it like muscles, bones and wrinkles in 3D space. The need for a fast and easy reconstruction approach has emerged out in the recent years due to its application in various domains; 3D disaster management and military training etc. These details simulation must be as realistic as possible to convey different emotions according to the constantly changing situations in CVE during the runtime. For example, in 3D disaster management, it is important to use dynamic avatar emotions; firefighters should be frightened when dealing with a fire disaster and smiling when treating injures and evacuating habitants. However, the solution of facial animation remains a challenge that restricts the rapid and ease development of facial animation systems. In this work, the author presents extensible game engine architecture to easily produce real-time facial animations using a script atomic action without having to deal with control structures and 3D programing language. The proposed architecture defines various controllers, object behaviors, tactical and graphics rendering, and collision effects to quickly design 3D virtual environment. Firstly, the author gives the concept of atomic expression, and the method to build a parametrized script file according to the atomic expression. Then the author shows the validity of the generated expressions based on the MPEG-4 facial animation framework. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed architecture is tested via a firefighter scenario. The author's approach has the advantages over previous techniques of fitting directly an easy and faster technology with a high degree of programming independence. The author also minimizes the interaction with the game engine during the runtime by injecting dynamically the XML file into the game engine without stopping or restarting the engine.

A high presence immersive traditional crafting system was developed to provide users, who interact with the system through head-mounted displays, with a highly realistic traditional crafting presentation experience that allows moving functions, such as free walk-through and teleportation. Users can also interactively operate traditional craft objects in space. In addition, the system supports collaborative work in a virtual space shared by remote users. To evaluate the effectiveness of this system, a questionnaire survey was administered to 124 subjects, who provided overwhelmingly positive responses regarding all functions. However, there is still room for improvement in the operability and relevancy of the system.

© 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Involvement of children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) in the design of new educational technology is becoming more prevalent. Despite potential barriers due to communication and ideation difficulties for children with ASC, adapted participatory design methods can successfully facilitate their direct involvement. Nonetheless, methods requiring face-to-face communication can still be difficult for children with ASC and research suggests that technology mediation could facilitate their contribution. This study explores the use of collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) as a medium through which students evaluated existing computer games and offered suggestions for game development. CVEs in which the users were represented by (a) avatars and (b) video-pods were compared to a face-to-face condition. Twelve typically developing (aged 8–9years), 12 higher ability ASC (12–14) and 4 lower ability ASC children (12–14) participated. All student groups preferred the video-pod CVE and students with ASC were generally better able to contribute effectively through this medium than face-to-face.

In this research, we aim to address the problem of combining the benefits of using eLearning environments and let students work together in groups in a collaborative virtual learning environments. In this paper, we explain the development of an establishment of a collaborative model for deaf people to support collaborative learning. The created model is an extension of traditional collaborative learning models in class rooms; it allows multiple deaf students to work together in a virtual environment to discuss the learning materials, solve problems, transfer knowledge, etc. We start by extending the collaborative learning model, by introducing explicit roles for each member in the group. The model provides a social space for deaf people to communicate using sign language. Moreover, it is implemented in a collaborative virtual environment that provides different types of features to support learning over distance. It allows deaf students to communicate and share knowledge easily. Bilingual chatting (text and sign language), video conference, and avatar feature are the main three features in the proposed model.

Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer-generated experience that can simulate physical presence in real or imagined environments [7]. A social VR system is an application that allows multiple users to join a collaborative Virtual Environment (VE), such as a computer-generated 3D scene or a 360-degree natural scene captured by an omnidirectional camera, and communicate with each other, usually by means of visual and audio cues. Each user is represented in the VE as a computer-generated avatar [3] or, in recently proposed systems, with a virtual representation based on live captures [1]. Depending on the system, the user’ virtual representation can also interact with the virtual environment, for example by manipulating virtual objects, controlling the appearance of the VE, or controlling the playout of additional media in the VE. The interest for social Virtual Reality (VR) systems dates back to the late 90s [4, 8] but has recently increased [2, 5, 6] due to the availability of affordable head-mounted displays on the consumer market and to the appearance of new applications, such as Facebook Spaces, YouTube VR, Hulu VR, which explicitly aim at including social features in existing VR platforms for multimedia delivery. In this talk, we will address the problem of measuring user Quality of Experience (QoE) in social VR systems. We will review the studies that have analysed how different features of a social VR system design, such as avatar appearance and behavioural realism, can affect user’s experience, and propose a comparison of the objective and subjective measures used in the literature to quantify user QoE in social VR. Finally, we will discuss the use case of watching movies together in VR and present the results of one of our recent studies focusing on this scenario, designed and performed in the framework of the European project VRTogether (http://vrtogether.eu). Particularly, we show an analysis of correlation between the objective and subjective measurements collected during our study, to provide guidelines toward the design of a unified methodology to monitor and quantify users’ QoE in social VR systems. The open questions to be addressed in the future in order to achieve such goal are also discussed.

Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), which allow naturalistic communication between two or more individuals in a shared virtual environment, hold promise as a tool for measuring and promoting social communication between peers. In this work, a CVE platform and a set of CVE-based collaborative games are designed for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Two groups (7 ASD/TD pairs; 7 TD/TD pairs) participated in a pilot study to establish system feasibility and tolerability. We also designed a methodology for capturing meaningful metrics of social communication. Based on these metrics, we found improved game performance and trends in communication of these participants over time. Although preliminary, these results provide important insights on CVE-based interaction for ASD intervention.

Collaboration among research scientists across multiple types of visualizations and platforms is useful to enhance scientific workflow and lead to unique analysis and discovery. However, current analytic tools and visualization infrastructure lack sufficient capabilities to fully support collaboration across multiple types of visualizations, display/interactive systems, and geographically distributed researchers. We have combined, adapted, and enhanced several emerging immersive and visualization technologies into a novel collaboration system that will provide scientists with the ability to connect with other scientists to work together across multiple visualization platforms (i.e. stereoscopic versus monoscopic), multiple datasets (i.e. 3-Dimensional versus 2-Dimensional data), and multiple visualization techniques (i.e. volumetric rendering versus 2D plots). We have demonstrated several use cases of this system in materials science, manufacturing, planning, and others. In one such use case, our collaboration system imports material science data (i.e., graphite billet) and enable multiple scientists to analyze and explore the density change of graphite across immersive and non-immersive systems, which will help to understand the potential structural problem in it. We recruited scientists that work with the datasets we demonstrate in three use case scenarios and conducted an experimental user study to evaluate our novel collaboration system on scientific visualization workflow effectiveness. In this paper, we present the results on task completion time, task performance, user experience, and feedback among multiple and feedback among multiple geographically distributed collaborators using different multiple-platform for collaboration.

We describe the design, deployment and testing of a module to track and graphically represent user movement in a collaborative virtual environment. This module allows for the comparison of ground-truth user/observer ratings of the affective qualities of an interaction with automatically generated representations of the participants' movements in real time. In this example, we generate three charts visible both to participants and external researchers. Two display the sum of the tracked movements of each participant, and a third displays a “synchrony visualizer”, or a correlation coefficient based on the relationship between the two participants' movements. Users and observers thus see a visual representation of “nonverbal synchrony” as it evolves over the course of the interaction. We discuss this module in the context of other applications beyond synchrony.

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often exhibit impairments in communication and social interaction, and thus face various social challenges in collaborative activities. Given the cost of ASD intervention and lack of access to trained clinicians, technology-assisted ASD intervention has gained momentum in recent years. In this paper, we present a novel collaborative virtual environment (CVE)-based social interaction platform for ASD intervention. The development of CVE technology for ASD intervention may lead to the creation of a novel low-cost intervention environment that will foster collaboration with peers and provide flexibility in communication. The presented Communication-Enhancement CVE system, hand-in-hand, allows two children to play a series of interactive games in a virtual reality environment by using simple hand gestures to collaboratively move virtual objects that are tracked in real time via cameras. Furthermore, these games are designed to promote natural communication and cooperation between the users via the presented Communication-Enhancement mode that allows users to share information and discuss game strategies using gaze and voice-based communication. The results of a feasibility study with 12 children with ASD and 12 typically developing peers show that this system was well accepted by both the children with and without ASD, improved their cooperation in game play, and demonstrated the potential for fostering their communication and collaboration skills.

Many older adults suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias and have affected cognitive abilities. In general, physical exercise, cognitive stimulation, and social engagement have been found to be beneficial for the physical and mental health of older adults with and without cognitive impairment. In an effort to address these needs, researchers have been developing human-machine interaction (HMI) systems to administer activity-oriented therapies. However, most of these system, while promising, focus on one-on-one interaction with the computer and thus do not support social engagement by involving multiple older adults. In this paper, we present the design and development of a motion-based collaborative virtual environment (CVE) application to support both activity and social engagement. The CVE task is based on a book-sorting activity and has embedded collaborative components to encourage human-human interaction (HHI). The system records quantitative data regarding users’ performance, interaction frequency, and social interaction. A preliminary user study was conducted to validate system usability and test on older adults’ tolerance and acceptance of the motion-based user interface (UI) as well as the CVE task. The results showed the usability of the motion-based UI and system capability to assess HMI and HHI from recorded quantitative data. The results from post-test and analysis of audio files indicated that the system might be potentially useful. More user study and data analysis need to be conducted to further investigate the CVE system.