KAVE - Kinect Cave: design, tools and comparative analysis with other VR technologies

Abstract

Virtual reality has been delivered through many different forms and iterations. One of them is the CAVE. CAVE systems have developed over the yearsbuttheyarestillhaveprohibitivecostsandarerathercomplextoimplement. In this thesis we propose our own low-cost CAVE system - comprised of details about the setup as well as a calibration software that was developedtohelpachievethegoalsofthisthesis-andcompareittootherlost-cost CAVEsfoundintheliterature. Thisthesisalsoencompassesapresencestudy that was performed as a result of assessing the resulting CAVE. This study compared CAVE, PC and Head-Mounted Display in terms of presence and workloadthroughtheuseofvalidatedquestionnairesfoundintheliterature. The resulting data showed HMD induced higher sense of presence than the CAVE, and CAVE induced higher sense of presence than the PC. Regarding workloadofthesystem,thedataalsoshowednostatisticallymeaningfuldifferences between the three technologies except for the physical demand of performing a task in a CAVE compared to performing the same task in the PC.