Experimental Performance Evaluation of Enhanced User Interaction Components for Web-Based Collaborative Extended Reality

COVID-19-related quarantine measures resulted in a significant increase of interest in online collaboration tools. This includes virtual reality (VR) or, in more general term, extended reality (XR) solutions. Shared XR allows for activities such as presentations, training of personnel or therapy to...

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Main Authors: Štefan Korečko, Marián Hudák, Branislav Sobota, Martin Sivý, Matúš Pleva, William Steingartner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/9/3811
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author Štefan Korečko
Marián Hudák
Branislav Sobota
Martin Sivý
Matúš Pleva
William Steingartner
author_facet Štefan Korečko
Marián Hudák
Branislav Sobota
Martin Sivý
Matúš Pleva
William Steingartner
author_sort Štefan Korečko
collection DOAJ
description COVID-19-related quarantine measures resulted in a significant increase of interest in online collaboration tools. This includes virtual reality (VR) or, in more general term, extended reality (XR) solutions. Shared XR allows for activities such as presentations, training of personnel or therapy to take place in a virtual space instead of a real one. To make online XR as accessible as possible, a significant effort has been put into the development of solutions that can run directly in web browsers. One of the most recognized solutions is the A-Frame software framework, created by Mozilla VR team and supporting most of the contemporary XR hardware. In addition, an extension called Networked-Aframe allows multiple users to share virtual environments, created using A-Frame, in real time. In this article, we introduce and experimentally evaluate three components that extend the functionality of A-Frame and Networked-Aframe. The first one extends Networked-Aframe with the ability to monitor and control users in a shared virtual scene. The second one implements six degrees of freedom motion tracking for smartphone-based VR headsets. The third one brings hand gesture support to the Microsoft HoloLens holographic computer. The evaluation was performed in a dedicated local network environment with 5, 10, 15 and 20 client computers. Each computer represented one user in a shared virtual scene. Since the experiments were carried out with and without the introduced components, the results presented here can also be regarded as a performance evaluation of A-Frame and Networked-Aframe themselves.
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spelling doaj.art-a858575e8693450c9826e38021ed2ddf2023-11-21T16:47:50ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172021-04-01119381110.3390/app11093811Experimental Performance Evaluation of Enhanced User Interaction Components for Web-Based Collaborative Extended RealityŠtefan Korečko0Marián Hudák1Branislav Sobota2Martin Sivý3Matúš Pleva4William Steingartner5Department of Computers and Informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Technical University of Košice, Letná 9, 042 00 Košice, SlovakiaDepartment of Computers and Informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Technical University of Košice, Letná 9, 042 00 Košice, SlovakiaDepartment of Computers and Informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Technical University of Košice, Letná 9, 042 00 Košice, SlovakiaDepartment of Computers and Informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Technical University of Košice, Letná 9, 042 00 Košice, SlovakiaDepartment of Electronics and Multimedia Communications, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Technical University of Košice, Němcovej 32, 042 00 Košice, SlovakiaDepartment of Computers and Informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Technical University of Košice, Letná 9, 042 00 Košice, SlovakiaCOVID-19-related quarantine measures resulted in a significant increase of interest in online collaboration tools. This includes virtual reality (VR) or, in more general term, extended reality (XR) solutions. Shared XR allows for activities such as presentations, training of personnel or therapy to take place in a virtual space instead of a real one. To make online XR as accessible as possible, a significant effort has been put into the development of solutions that can run directly in web browsers. One of the most recognized solutions is the A-Frame software framework, created by Mozilla VR team and supporting most of the contemporary XR hardware. In addition, an extension called Networked-Aframe allows multiple users to share virtual environments, created using A-Frame, in real time. In this article, we introduce and experimentally evaluate three components that extend the functionality of A-Frame and Networked-Aframe. The first one extends Networked-Aframe with the ability to monitor and control users in a shared virtual scene. The second one implements six degrees of freedom motion tracking for smartphone-based VR headsets. The third one brings hand gesture support to the Microsoft HoloLens holographic computer. The evaluation was performed in a dedicated local network environment with 5, 10, 15 and 20 client computers. Each computer represented one user in a shared virtual scene. Since the experiments were carried out with and without the introduced components, the results presented here can also be regarded as a performance evaluation of A-Frame and Networked-Aframe themselves.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/9/3811extended realityWebXRperformance evaluationA-Framevirtual collaboration
spellingShingle Štefan Korečko
Marián Hudák
Branislav Sobota
Martin Sivý
Matúš Pleva
William Steingartner
Experimental Performance Evaluation of Enhanced User Interaction Components for Web-Based Collaborative Extended Reality
Applied Sciences
extended reality
WebXR
performance evaluation
A-Frame
virtual collaboration
title Experimental Performance Evaluation of Enhanced User Interaction Components for Web-Based Collaborative Extended Reality
title_full Experimental Performance Evaluation of Enhanced User Interaction Components for Web-Based Collaborative Extended Reality
title_fullStr Experimental Performance Evaluation of Enhanced User Interaction Components for Web-Based Collaborative Extended Reality
title_full_unstemmed Experimental Performance Evaluation of Enhanced User Interaction Components for Web-Based Collaborative Extended Reality
title_short Experimental Performance Evaluation of Enhanced User Interaction Components for Web-Based Collaborative Extended Reality
title_sort experimental performance evaluation of enhanced user interaction components for web based collaborative extended reality
topic extended reality
WebXR
performance evaluation
A-Frame
virtual collaboration
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/9/3811
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