The TOADS system is an innovative tool for building interior-space virtual environments (VEs) in two dimensions. Existing VE design tools typically operate in three dimensions, which makes it difficult to manipulate objects on the inherently two-dimensional computer screen. TOADS allows nearly the same functionality as those three-dimensional systems in an easy-to-use, two-dimensional environment. Users edit and enhance DXF floorplans with height and texture information. The software includes an inference engine that automatically identifies doors in the floorplan and generates openable polygons in the final environment. It also includes a sophisticated mechanism for embedding complex textures, such as transparent windows, at arbitrary heights in wall polygons. The entire interface is integrated with software that drives a custom texture-acquisition device. This device consists of a rack-mounted camera that captures narrow bands of textures and tiles them together to form long, continuous swaths of texture. This paper summarizes these tools and their function, and presents examples of environments that were generated with them.

There is currently much research activity involving virtual environments (VEs) and spatial behavior (spatial perception, cognition, and performance). After some initial remarks describing and categorizing the different types of research being conducted on VEs and spatial behavior, discussion in this Forum paper focuses on one specific type, namely, research concerned with the use of VE technology for training spatial behavior in the real world. We initially present an overview of issues and problems relevant to conducting research in this area, and then, in the latter portion of the paper, present an overview of the research that we believe needs to be done in this area. We have written this paper for the forum section of Presence because, despite its length, it is essentially an opinion piece. Our aim here is not to report the results of research in our own laboratory nor to review the literature, as other available papers already serve these goals. Rather, the primary purpose of this paper is to stimulate open discussion about needed future research. In general, we believe that such a discussion can serve the research establishment as much as reports of completed work.

A relatively simple architectural space was modeled and used to compare the effects of spatial training in simulations versus training in the real world. Thirty-five subjects were trained in one of the following conditions: real world (RW), virtual environment (VE), nonimmersive virtual environment (NVE), and model (Mod). The VE condition made use of a head-mounted display to view the simulated environment, while the NVE condition used a desktop monitor. In the Mod condition, the subject viewed and could manipulate a 3-D model of the space, viewed from a desktop display. The training-transfer tasks, performed after brief unstructured exposure to the actual space or to one of the simulations, consisted of estimating the bearing and range to various targets in the real space from various spatially distributed stations, each such pair of estimates constituting a subtask of the overall transfer task. Results obtained from each of the four training conditions proved to be roughly the same. Training in any one of the simulations was comparable to training in the real world. Independent of training condition, there was a strong tendency among subjects to underestimate range. Variability in range errors was dominated by differences among subjects, whereas variability in bearing errors was dominated by differences among subtasks. These results are discussed in the context of plans for future work.

The management of a large number of manuscripts is integral to the publishing of a scientific journal. The process of submitting articles should be as simple as possible, both for the sake of the authors and for the reduction of the overhead associated with mailing and handling. For these reasons, the entire pre-press process at Presence is now based on standard Internet protocols. Although a hardcopy document is still required by the publisher, the pre-press process—from original submission through the stages of review—to final acceptance for publication—can now be done electronically. All functions involving electronic manuscript submission and management, as well as correspondence with reviewers, has been bundled in a modular package amenable to modifications. This publishing system was developed in-house at a fraction of the cost of acquiring a commercially available system. It was designed in close cooperation with the editorial staff to ensure optimal functionality.

A prototype near-field virtual environment system is described that incorporates a CrystalEyes stereoscopic display (viewed in a mirror), a PHANToM manipulandum, and a stereo auditory display. The apparatus, which was designed to achieve registration of three sensory modalities (visual, haptic, and auditory), has a wide range of applications and has been used for both psychophysics and training research. Calibration-verification experiments are described in which human subjects positioned a physical probe attached to the manipulandum so that it appeared to coincide with a visual target on the stereoscopic display. The readings from the manipulandum and the calculated positions of the targets corresponded roughly within ± 0.5 cm over a large volume, although differences greater than 1 cm were observed near the sides of the workspace. The calibration of the manipulandum was tested independently on the z axis (running through the center of the workspace), and the perceived depth of the targets (probe z coordinate) was found to agree with the calculated depth within the accuracy of the measurements (± 0.4 cm). Some subjects had poorer positioning resolution when the visual target was far from the plane of the display screen (although their mean response was unaffected), and we hypothesize that this may have been caused by the different levels of accommodation that were needed to view the physical probe and the displayed target.