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The technological advances we are witnessing today have stimulated the creation of many 3D virtual environments for various purposes, from entertainment to industry to education. While the majority of these environments are perfectly suited for the healthy population, we should not forget about impaired people living among us. Regarding children’s education, one may wonder how impaired children handle them. Do they find them usable and attractive? How well do they handle basic activities in 3D environments, including orientation and interaction with objects? The experiment presented in this article provides answers to these questions within a specific setup. The experiment used a custom web application with several 3D virtual environments in a desktop virtual reality setting. The participants were 12 children, aged 8–14, with multiple impairments, predominantly hearing impairment, borderline and mild degree of mental retardation, and inferior communication skills. The answers can be regarded as positive and are based on results gathered in the form of completion times and the System Usability Scale questionnaire scores. The article also reports on a significant relation found between completion times and questionnaire scores. Future research directions, including those related to the Metaverse concept, are discussed, too.

This paper deals with an approach to upper limbs therapy that uses virtual reality technologies. The previous methods and subsequent improvements of these procedures by means of a skeletal model of the upper limb in a virtual environment are presented here. So, main focus of the paper is on the description of calculation related to the bone rotation system within appropriate skeletal model. The therapist can add either more virtual upper limb objects or more virtual training objects to the virtual environment and thus expand/change the scene or the therapy complexity. The functions used in the limb movement calculations are useful for creating additional animations with various objects. With this system, the patient can be stimulated under the supervision of a therapist to practice certain rehabilitation procedures. Due to the use of collaborative web-based virtual reality, the therapy can be also applied in a remote form. The way in which the underlying idea of rehabilitation process is implemented and it is also described. In the conclusion are the some notes about system testing and evaluation including description of a therapist interface.

The following chapter presents an experience with academic education in computer games design and development based on game theory, emphasizing iterative development, rapid (paper) prototyping, and game testing. We demonstrate and comment on various educational activities focused on game testing, describing them in steps and including benefits and motivation. Iteration of card game rules, design of a board game, design of a computer game with a paper prototype, and testing of early-access games are supplemented with students’ practical outputs in both text and graphical form. The results include feedback in the testing forms: Focus Groups, Playtesting, Usability Testing, and Quality Assurance.

This work introduces a uniform smartphone controller interface integrated into LIRKIS G-CVE web-based global collaborative virtual environments. In general, VR controllers provide various kinds of interaction techniques to manipulate virtual objects. Mostly, those aim focus on controlling the virtual context and the interaction with 3D GUI integrated in the virtual environment. With respect to web-based virtual reality, the progress in development of uniform interfaces is raising thanks to emerging web technologies and frameworks with cross-platform support. Although there are many manufacturers of VR controllers, their usage is often limited only for specified display device. Our intention is to cover multiple devices through only one simple controller interface, that is capable to provide a variety of interactions for web-based VR. In this study we proposed Enhanced Smart Client Interface designed for providing fully immersive interaction through smartphones. We performed several experiments focused on user experience and usability under two cloud platforms. Results obtained from experiments performed in our study confirm that utilization of our interface is mostly affected by the server response time. Based on the results this solution is suitable for further development and improvements.

Recent advances in the field of web technologies, including the increasing support of virtual reality hardware, have allowed for shared virtual environments, reachable by just entering a URL in a browser. One contemporary solution that provides such a shared virtual reality is LIRKIS Global Collaborative Virtual Environments (LIRKIS G-CVE). It is a web-based software system, built on top of the A-Frame and Networked-Aframe frameworks. This paper describes LIRKIS G-CVE and introduces its two original components. The first one is the Smart-Client Interface, which turns smart devices, such as smartphones and tablets, into input devices. The advantage of this component over the standard way of user input is demonstrated by a series of experiments. The second component is the Enhanced Client Access layer, which provides access to positions and orientations of clients that share a virtual environment. The layer also stores a history of connected clients and provides limited control over the clients. The paper also outlines an ongoing experiment aimed at an evaluation of LIRKIS G-CVE in the area of virtual prototype testing.

Computer games and, of course, the development associated with them have been in the spotlight for many years; recently, also with technologies, such as virtual reality or extended reality. The main part of this chapter presents the classification of collaborative XR systems, the concept of the major application architectures and the consistency models of shared virtual game environments. The next subchapter briefly deals with the sharing of property ownership. The mentioned concepts and examples used in the chapter are implemented in many works and projects using a collaborative environment (also in gamified form) developed in the laboratory LIRKIS, the home laboratory of the authors. The knowledge presented in this chapter may provide tips and inspiration for some other game projects, and practical and useful notes on the advantages or disadvantages of some systems will be interesting and useful.

The article presents for the first time a gallery of 3D boundary surfaces of a multi-value memory cell. In the analysis, we chose such sizes of parasitic elements on the chip, in which there are no stable limit cycles present in the memory, assuming that the absence of stable limit cycles will greatly simplify the transcription of information in the memory. However, this fact was not confirmed and the 3D gallery of boundary surfaces points to the need to know the boundary surface for each case of changing the size of parasitic capacitances on the chip. This will make it possible to explain the memory failure associated with, for example, a change in technology in the memory production. At the same time, visualization of boundary surfaces, attractors or chaotic attractors using virtual reality technologies is offered for another technical activities.

Web-based collaborative virtual reality is emerging as platform-independent technology that permits developers to produce fully immersive and interactive virtual environments accessible through web-browsers. The use of collaborative virtual environments can be helpful in situations when therapists and patients are unable to meet personally. This work introduces an extension of the LIRKIS G-CVE system with web-based interfaces for remote management of the upper limb rehabilitation process. Concerning the quality and safety of web technologies., we consider distant virtual training to be efficient for ordinary people.

This paper describes a development of a sofware solution for disabled users on symbol (pictogram) - text interface level. The solution is extended by a gesture recognition, which works with a sign-language. A symbol (pictogram) represents an idea encapsulated into a simple drawing. Its purpose is to better understand given situation. When teaching children to read, it is required that the text used is not impersonal. The purpose of the text is not only to give information; it should also “touch” the child and provide understanding. The paper offers a description of the sofware solution implementation. It also provides selected examples of the solution utilization and its evaluation.

– Visuospatial cognitive functions play a crucial role in human cognition. In recent years., these functions have sparked interest among researchers., neuroscientists and psychologists., focusing on their training., assessment and restoration. Virtual reality (VR) provides an immersive environment., which can be used for stimulation of these cognitive functions and its effects that can be measured afterwards. The experimental procedure., described in this paper., bring us closer to understanding how a VR experience., in a gamified form using a tower defense genre game., may improve our visuospatial cognitive functions. An incremental development., described in this paper., is a shift from the use of a unique but expensive VR CAVE to a more flexible., smaller and cheaper solution – a VR headset. The development utilizes a progressive mix of web and VR technologies. The presented approach can contribute to a new method of experiment participants testing., even outside a laboratory environment.

The paper describes an alternative use of some smartphone sensors to determine the characteristics and driving style. Two applications have been designed and built. These applications enable the collection of data from the sensors of smartphones while driving and the evaluation of these measurements aimed at detecting the driver's driving style. The test measurements of various types of vehicle starting were performed and evaluated using the proposed applications. Finally, the way of using this solution after certain modifications for disabled people on wheelchairs is presented.

This paper focuses on the description of the interface design of a backend server and the design implementation of a user interface suitable for the visualization of virtual and real objects/appliances controlled in a SMART environment, for example in the home, with regard to the cognitive abilities of the user. Client applications will be able to use the REST API and communicate through this API using requests, use implemented logic, and store objects and their states in the database. The server is deployed in the cloud to be accessible outside the local network. The solution is universal and offers a generic standard to support different types of appliances using a generic form. Task scheduling is also an important function. In virtual reality, it is possible to quickly test the cognitive abilities of the user and thus adapt the user interface to his needs.

At the Department of Computers and Informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics TU Kosice (DCI FEEI TU Kosice) students can study virtual reality technologies and computer graphics. This subject in education process is relatively young. The study is focused on the acquirement of theoretical knowledge and practical experiences about 3D computer graphics, virtual reality and its technologies including natural and bioadaptive user interfaces and computer games. Students work in our laboratory (LIRKIS) with the latest virtual reality technologies (e.g. augmented/mixed reality, data helmets including Microsoft Hololens, 3D scanning or 3D printing) during practical exercises and they create content for them (such as applications or virtual models and scenes). Currently we also have a new self-developed technology known as CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). For education purposes it is also important to know what students know about virtual reality and its technologies to correctly adjust lessons to the students’ knowledge and to the needs of practice. The main focus is the usage of these technologies for handicapped people education. This paper presents our experiences in education of virtual reality in both ways: as subject of study and also as tool for studying.

In the paper we present the sound output of analogue signal from the Chua’s circuit. We are not interested only in the classic displaying of graphically interesting attractors in the plane, but we are also interested in the sound of them. Changes in Chua's circuit parameters result in a variety of periodic and chaotic attractors that can also be used in music or cryptography. MIDI keys have been used so that a signal with the appropriate tone frequency is generated for each key. The result of using various output signals of the Chua’s circuit is presented through the internationally known Slovak folk song "The furnace fell down". Also, we point out the possibilities of using chaos in rehabilitation in hearing testing.

Utilization of web-based Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE) enhances user’s interaction over large geographical distances. Deploying a variety of VR technologies increases demands to develop VR applications which would run on various systems and devices. Otherwise, user’s access is limited by the supported operating system. Nowadays, concerning the quality and safety of web technologies, it is possible to provide Global Collaborative Virtual Environments (G-CVE) with cross-platform support. This paper introduces the LIRKIS G-CVE web-based system, built on top of the Networked-Aframe framework. The architecture of LIRKIS G-CVE is presented, together with is innovative Smart-client interface (SCI) component, which utilizes smart devices, such as smartphones and tablets, as input devices. The advantage of SCI over the standard input component of the Networked-Aframe is demonstrated via a series of experiments.

This chapter deals with the visualization of chaotic attractors of the Chua's circuit and the so-called boundary surface that separates individual attractors from each other in the circuit. Due to unceasing activities in exploration of the new chaos-generating systems and the utilization of chaos in areas such as rehabilitation, noise generation, cryptography, synchronization, neural networks, economics, cancer research, true random number generators, or secret communication, it is necessary to know and visualize both the boundary surface morphology and the chaotic attractor. The chapter covers not only the historical perspective of visualization of chaotic attractors and boundary surfaces, but also a very graphic and modern way of visualization which is the use of virtual reality means, specifically, “virtual cave.” Due to the time-consuming calculation of the boundary surface, we also mention the possibilities of its calculation in 3D state space using parallelization. The abovementioned knowledge of calculation and visualization of the boundary surface and attractors by means of virtual reality can be used not only in Chua's system, but also in any autonomous system.