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A low cost virtual reality interface for educational games

Mobile virtual reality has the potential to improve learning experiences by making them more immersive and engaging for students. This type of virtual reality also aims to be more cost effective by using a smartphone to drive the virtual reality experience. One issue with mobile virtual reality is t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sewpersad, Tashiv
Other Authors: Gain, James
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Computer Science 2023
Subjects:
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access_status_str Open Access
author Sewpersad, Tashiv
author2 Gain, James
author_browse Gain, James
Sewpersad, Tashiv
author_facet Gain, James
Sewpersad, Tashiv
author_sort Sewpersad, Tashiv
collection Thesis
description Mobile virtual reality has the potential to improve learning experiences by making them more immersive and engaging for students. This type of virtual reality also aims to be more cost effective by using a smartphone to drive the virtual reality experience. One issue with mobile virtual reality is that the screen (i.e. main interface) of the smartphone is occluded by the virtual reality headset. To investigate solutions to this issue, this project details the development and testing of a computer vision based controller that aims to have a cheaper per unit cost when compared to a conventional electronic controller by making use of 3D printing and the built-in camera of a smartphone. Reducing the cost per unit is useful for educational contexts as solutions would need to scale to classrooms sizes. The research question for this project is thus, “can a computer vision based virtual reality controller provide comparable immersion to a conventional electronic controller”. It was found that a computer vision based controller can provide comparable immersion, though it is more challenging to use. This challenge was found to contribute more towards engagement as it did not diminish the performance of users in terms of question scores.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:09.918Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher Department of Computer Science
publisherStr Department of Computer Science
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37825 A low cost virtual reality interface for educational games Sewpersad, Tashiv Gain, James education virtual reality educational games Mobile virtual reality has the potential to improve learning experiences by making them more immersive and engaging for students. This type of virtual reality also aims to be more cost effective by using a smartphone to drive the virtual reality experience. One issue with mobile virtual reality is that the screen (i.e. main interface) of the smartphone is occluded by the virtual reality headset. To investigate solutions to this issue, this project details the development and testing of a computer vision based controller that aims to have a cheaper per unit cost when compared to a conventional electronic controller by making use of 3D printing and the built-in camera of a smartphone. Reducing the cost per unit is useful for educational contexts as solutions would need to scale to classrooms sizes. The research question for this project is thus, “can a computer vision based virtual reality controller provide comparable immersion to a conventional electronic controller”. It was found that a computer vision based controller can provide comparable immersion, though it is more challenging to use. This challenge was found to contribute more towards engagement as it did not diminish the performance of users in terms of question scores. 2023-04-26T08:06:28Z 2023-04-26T08:06:28Z 2022 2023-04-26T08:05:22Z Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37825 eng application/pdf Department of Computer Science Faculty of Science
spellingShingle education
virtual reality
educational games
Sewpersad, Tashiv
A low cost virtual reality interface for educational games
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A low cost virtual reality interface for educational games
title_full A low cost virtual reality interface for educational games
title_fullStr A low cost virtual reality interface for educational games
title_full_unstemmed A low cost virtual reality interface for educational games
title_short A low cost virtual reality interface for educational games
title_sort low cost virtual reality interface for educational games
topic education
virtual reality
educational games
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37825
work_keys_str_mv AT sewpersadtashiv alowcostvirtualrealityinterfaceforeducationalgames
AT sewpersadtashiv lowcostvirtualrealityinterfaceforeducationalgames