ARTICLE IN PRESS

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doi:10.1016/j.ijh

Int. J. Human-Computer Studies 64 (2006) 157

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhcs

Editorial

Interaction with virtual environments

Virtual environments which are presented throughvirtual reality (VR) systems present a large variety ofchallenges to specialists in interactive system design andhuman computer interaction. The family of technicalsystems termed VR is constantly evolving, expanding andcontracting, and although there are certain systems thateverybody would agree are VR hardly any two specialistswould agree on where the category begins and ends. Thusthe human factors theories, models, methods and knowl-edge needed for VR/VE have always lagged behind systemdevelopment. Also, human factors empirical work has beenextraordinarily difficult to plan and carry out, given thevery large number of variables involved. In addition, as thetechnical systems and their interfaces have improved sothe potential application fields have expanded, increasingthe requirement for domain, function and task analysis andmultiplying the design space and difficulty of evaluation.

Within the 5th Framework of the European CommissionInformation Society Technologies (IST) Programme, Vir-tual and Interactive Environments for Workplaces of theFuture (VIEW) was a major flagship project to understand,develop and evaluate VR technologies which wouldsupport the workplace of the future. In particular thesesystems were to enhance mobility, visualization andcollaboration in the workplace. This special issue isdevoted to a series of papers that summarize a number ofthe different facets of this project.

The issue opens with an overview paper by Wilson andD’Cruz which summarizes the total project, and puts it incontext of general human factors of interaction betweenparticipants and virtual environments. Then a series ofpapers describe the technical developments on the project.Hoffmann et al. describe the development of a mobile highquality virtual environment tool for use in automotive andother design, PI-casso. For the other major developmentstream, Ronkko et al. describe VE-VIEW, a multi-mediaand relatively mobile VR set up which allows simulation ofassembly operations in zero gravity, eventually to be usedfor the training of astronauts.

A major theme in the project was the development ofinteraction concepts and devices. One such was multipledecoupled interaction (Bayon et al.), which allows more

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than the lead user to be active in controlling and mani-pulating the virtual environment through use of a numberof distributed devices. One critical element for usability ofvirtual environment technology has been the control andinput devices provided, and the paper by Patel et al. reportstwo experimental studies which compare a number of theseand then lead towards design of a next generation. Part ofthe project also was to examine ways to support the usersof virtual environments and two tools are presented whichdo this. Virtual Prints (Grammenos et al.) allow users andtheir colleagues to track where people have been in virtualenvironments and what they have done. A screening tool(NAIVE) from Griffiths et al. can be used to assess whetherparticipants are ready to use VR systems and participate invirtual environments to a particular level of competence,whether to take part in experimental trials or to begin touse VR in their workplace.Evaluation took place within the project in a number of

ways, from examining people’s participation and relatedhuman factors for virtual environments generally throughto explicit evaluation of particular developments within theVIEW project, and through to assessments of organiza-tional readiness and impact. Karaseitanidis summarizesthe total evaluation programme and in particular thedevelopment of a usability test battery, the use of a numberof self report tools and a socio-economic analysis ofpriorities for VR/VE. Finally in a departure from thenormal sort of evaluation in human computer interaction,Patel et al. report practical evaluations of VR systems thatwere carried out with actual users in real automotivecompanies.This project has had a large impact on the European

VR/VE research and development community. It has led tothe formation of the major new European Network ofExcellence, funded by the European Commission, INTUI-TION, which brings together leading participants in theEuropean VR community.

John R. WilsonSchool of M3, University of Nottingham,

University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

E-mail address: john.wilson@nottingham.ac.uk