Second Life Stereoscopic VR Environment
as Platform for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Research

' Ars Electronica Futurelab Ars Electronica Futurelab

Visitors to the Ars Electronica Center can explore the virtual world of Second Life in a stereoscopic environment. In addition to the actual use of Second Life on the Web as an experiential realm or strategy game, this real-time stereo version serves as an experimentation and research platform for HCI with an emphasis on virtual content creation, telepresence and navigation in complex virtual environments as well as the accompanying interaction demands. The manifold possibilities of creating and manipulating virtual content, the behavioral patterns of characters as well as the real-world-based semantic and socio-economic structure of Second Life provide an appropriate setting. In the wake of the Ars Electronica Futurelab’s development of VRizer, which enables any Linux-based openGL application to be made compatible with the ARSBOX in active or passive stereo mode, the net-based application can be depicted in a high-performance VR system and used as an interactive 3D environment for a wide variety of HCI studies. This is meant as a way to develop and evaluate strategies for successful interface metaphors in the area of real-time user-generated content creation in the stereo version of Second Life with the aim of depicting sets of programming and interaction parameters via a single interface and independent of the Web application. The insights derived from these studies can then be transferred to other application scenarios such as virtual urban planning tools, training simulations and collaborative edutainment environments.

Translated from German by Mel Greenwald

Research Team: Horst Hörtner, Christopher Lindinger, Doris Zachhuber, Florian Berger, Daniela Kuka