Augsburg College - Augsburg Now

Behind the door of a small laboratory in the lower level of Sverdrup Hall, Augsburg senior Scott Kuhl is manipulating reality.

Kuhl, an undergraduate research assistant, is part of the Department of Computer Science's Localization Project, analyzing the cues that people use to locate themselves when they enter computer-created virtual environments. Kuhl has participated in the National Science Foundation-funded project since the summer of 2001.

"Generally speaking, we're trying to answer questions about how people perceive things," says Kuhl, a computer science and mathematics double major. "Similar research has been done in outdoor environments. We are duplicating that work in a virtual environment. We're interested in seeing the difference between doing the experiments in a virtual environment versus a real environment."

The project consists of two sets of experiments, the first involving self-localization and the second dealing with rotational recalibration. The subjects in all of the experiments view the virtual environment by using a head-mounted display. They can move freely, able to turn around or look up and down in the virtual environment. Kuhl wrote computer programs to render the virtual environments for both sets of experiments.

Karen Sutherland, Augsburg associate professor of computer science, based the overall vision of the project and the set of localization experiments on her previous work in both robot and real-world localization. Experiments in self-localization have been conducted in the real world for many years. More recently, researchers have begun exploring virtual space and asking the question: "Do we use the same techniques to locate ourselves in virtual space as we do in real space?"

The project's set of rotational recalibration experiments was developed by Kuhl, and is inspired by a research project he participated in at the University of Utah the summer of 2002.

"They had a treadmill-like system with screens, where you walk straight ahead while the virtual world is displayed on the screens," says Kuhl. "As part of their research, they changed how fast the virtual world moved as you walked. The world would, for example, move twice as fast as it should have."

This experience prompted Kuhl to ponder what would happen if instead of changing the rate that the world moves as you walk straight, you changed the rate at which it moves as you rotate.

"I'm interested in learning about the process of adjustment and how we might adjust differently in virtual environments than we do in real-world environments," says Kuhl.

In Kuhl's experiments, participants put on the head-mounted display and are shown a computer-generated wall with a poster on it. After viewing the poster, participants close their eyes and are instructed to turn around in place so that they are facing in the same direction as they were originally. Then, they are told to look at a series of posters by following a set of instructions. After these instructions, participants view another poster, close their eyes, and turn around in a complete circle so they are facing the poster again.

"I've particularly enjoyed the technical aspects of this research—although the psychological aspects are a bit of a challenge," says Kuhl. "It's really neat to relate what I've learned in my mathematics classes to what I'm doing with computer graphics."

When the experiments are complete, the results will be compiled and analyzed statistically, comparing results of the previous real world and robot experiments with these. The rotational recalibration experiments will also serve as Kuhl's departmental honors project. After he graduates this spring, he plans to pursue graduate studies in computer science.

In addition to this work, the computer science department will be performing experiments using a data glove in the virtual environment, and is also using the lab to develop a computer graphics course that incorporates virtual reality topics.

"I can see lots of opportunities in the future to use our lab—not just for virtual reality, but also for robotics—as well as a combination of the two," says Sutherland.