Body-Centred Configuration in Collaborative Virtual Environments
Dave Snowdon, Kai-Mikael Jää-Aro · 1996
With the increase in number of VR applications and increasing complexity of VR systems the user is provided with a multiplicity of different options for configuring their embodiment in the virtual world, the style of interface (immersive or desktop), application specific parameters and even whether they wish to use the system in a subjective or objective manner. However, there is no single, flexible way for the user to configure these parameters and even a single VR system may provide several different configuration files that must be tailored to a user's needs. To worsen the situation the user (from our own experience) may need to vary these settings at each invocation of the VR system or application. We therefore propose a new metaphor for configuring Virtual Environments and the applications within them, which we term Body Centred Configuration (BCC). Body Centred Configuration considers a user's preferences to be an integral part of her representation in a virtual environment. In this paper we describe Body Centred Configuration and an implementation using the SICS DIVE VR system.