Modal Sound Synthesis For Interactive Virtual Environments

Modal Sound Synthesis for Interactive Virtual Environments

Sound Synthesis, Propagation, and Rendering

This book gives a broad overview of research on sound simulation driven by a variety of applications. Vibrating objects produce sound, which then propagates through a medium such as air or water before finally being heard by a listener. As a crucial sensory channel, sound plays a vital role in many applications. There is a well-established research community in acoustics that has studied the problems related to sound simulation for six decades. Some of the earliest work was motivated by the design of concert halls, theaters, or lecture rooms with good acoustic characteristics. These problems also have been investigated in other applications, including noise control and sound design for urban planning, building construction, and automotive applications. Moreover, plausible or realistic sound effects can improve the sense of presence in a virtual environment or a game. In these applications, sound can provide important clues such as source directionality and spatial size. The book first surveys various sound synthesis methods, including harmonic synthesis, texture synthesis, spectral analysis, and physics-based synthesis. Next, it provides an overview of sound propagation techniques, including wave-based methods, geometric-based methods, and hybrid methods. The book also summarizes various techniques for sound rendering. Finally, it surveys some recent trends, including the use of machine learning methods to accelerate sound simulation and the use of sound simulation techniques for other applications such as speech recognition, source localization, and computer-aided design.

Skill Training in Multimodal Virtual Environments

The advent of augmented reality technologies used to assist human operators in complex manipulative operations—has brought an urgency to research into the modeling and training of human skills in Virtual Environments. However, modeling a specific act still represents a challenge in cognitive science. The same applies for the control of humanoid robots and the replication of skilled behavior of avatars in Virtual Environments. Skill Training in Multimodal Virtual Environments presents the scientific background, research outcomes, engineering developments, and evaluation studies conducted during the five years (2006-2011) of the project SKILLS–Multimodal Interfaces for Capturing and Transfer of Skill, funded by the European Commission under its 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. The SKILLS project evaluated how to exploit robotics and virtual environment technologies for the training of specific skills. This book details the novel approach used in the study to cope with skill acquisition, setting aside the mainstream assumptions of common computer-assisted training simulators. It explores how the SKILLS approach generated new training scenarios that allow users to practice new experiences in the performance of the devised task. Using a carefully designed approach that balances science with practicality, the book explores how virtual and augmented reality systems can be designed to address the skill transfer and training in different application contexts. The application of the same roadmap to skills originating from domains such as sports, rehabilitation, industrial environment, and surgery sets this book apart. It demonstrates how technology-oriented training conditions can yield better results than more traditional training conditions.