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MoViT: A Mobile Virtual Reality Tour

Overview

Abstract

The fast changing world of technology affects many areas of society in a positive way including tourism. The use of emerging technologies such as virtual reality, multimedia, and mobile technologies is changing the tourism industry through showcasing the wonders of undiscovered nature hidden beneath the undiscovered municipalities, such as the Panguil River Eco-Park (PREP) in Pangil, Laguna, Philippines. Potential visitors can now reach these hidden wonders of nature without actually being in the vicinity with virtual reality tour.

Uncertainties as to what to expect in the vicinity would be reduced, giving them an opportunity to explore and roam around inside which has led to the development of the 3D Mobile Virtual Tour Application (MoViT) for the Panguil River Eco-Park which was implemented using story conception, concept scripting, feasibility analysis, script writing, system evaluation, revision, integration, and system operation. Based on the result of the usability testing, the study was able to provide an experience of the eco-park giving the potential visitors a “feel” of the eco-park. Moreover, the staff and visitors of the Eco-park were asked to evaluate MoViT. The results showed that the respondents were able to use the virtual tour guide application and were able to determine the different points of interest with ease and they were able to have the “feel” of the eco-park.

Introduction

The use of emerging Technologies such as virtual reality, multimedia, and mobile Technologies have an impact into modern tourism industry as Hay (2008) stated in his study that the tourism businesses could use a 3D virtual environment (VE) to bring and attract the attention of hard-to-reach potential visitors. Similarly, in the study of Zhuowei & Lai (2012) they agreed that the application of virtual reality technology in tourism could meet the tours and aesthetic demands of those people who do not have the capability of getting there in a certain level.

Virtual reality is a rapidly developing computer interface that is available everywhere and anytime, so it ensures convenience and safety for the user (Shao, Yu, & Meng, 2013). In addition, the uses of digital media as an information resource and communication platform for tourists have grown significantly. Electronic gadget manufacturers, telecommunication providers and social media developers have been collaborating to enable tourist to acquire, store, disseminate, and exchange information in a Multimedia-friendly format about their travel plans and itineraries (Divinagracia, Divinagracia, & Divinagracia, 2012).

What I Accomplished

• Identified that the main problem of remote places like the Panguil River Eco-Park is marketing and trying to reach potential visitors.

• Designed a 3D mobile application that allows users to roam a 3D Virtual environment designed to be similar and gives the user the "feel" of the eco-park.

• Presented at the 3rd International Conference on Hospitality, Leisure, Sports, and Tourism (ICHLST) which led to the paper being published as Chapter 7 in the book e-Consumers in the Era of New Tourism.

•Mentioned in an article by The Age, Virtual reality: staying at home while going abroad.

Empathize/Define

Creating Research Goals

Identify a way to market the eco-park

Identify a way to make users experience the eco-park remotely

Goal of the Study

This study was created to help visitors and potential visitors of Panguil River Eco-Park in Laguna to find their way inside the eco-park by using the mobile virtual tour application. Since Panguil River Eco-Park has been the source of income in Pangil Laguna, marketing the eco-park could greatly help the municipality. By the use of mobile virtual tour, tourist all over the World can virtually experience being inside the eco-park beforehand. They can experience the attractions and activities as well as to roam inside the eco-park. İn addition to that, Panguil River Eco-Park is located in a remote location in southern part of the Province of Laguna making it hard to be reached by visitors and thus only allowing them to see the place in brochures and blogs. Thus gives the potential visitors the element of uncertainty of what they would expect if they visit the eco-park. But with the use of Virtual Reality, it was intended to dispel the element of uncertainty and give the visitor an experience of actually being inside the eco-park without actually going there. Therefore, making a mobile virtual tour of eco-park would greatly affect not just only potential visitors inside the country but also around the World.

The goal of the study was to create a virtual reality tour that can allow visitors and potential visitors to have an experience of the activities inside the Panguil River Eco-Park. Specifically, the study was intended to: create a 3D virtual environment of the different points of interest which includes the administration’s office, police station, hanging bridge, swimming pool, cottages, camping sites, Pavilion, Biak-na-Bato and the Ambon-Ambon falls inside the eco-park, provide an auditory experience that replicates the sounds of the environment, and help the users to navigate and guide them towards their selected destination.

Virtual Reality System Design Factors

In enhancing the virtual experience of the user while using the Virtual Reality system, the system must be designed while observing 9 factors (Horan, 1997), (Shao, Yu, & Meng, 2013), (Osman, Wahab, & Ismail, 2009). Therefore the study will be designed observing all the 9 factors:

Attractiveness

Virtual Environment must be as nearly attractive as the real world, since it tends the user to be immersed to the environment.

Customizability

Users must be able to freely roam the Virtual Environment.

Background Sounds

This pertains to the natural sounds (birds chirming, flowing rivers, winds blowing, etc.) the user will hear on the Virtual Environment.

Diffusability

Covers the usability, user friendliness and the compatibility of the system to the hardware it is installed.

Interactivity

This is the field that will trigger the user’s interest, thus making the user interact with the Virtual Environment can make the system more interesting and will make the user more immerse into the system.

Navigation

The user must freely navigate through the Virtual Reality System.

Quality of Scenes/Images

Image Quality must be strictly observed as such that Virtual Environment must nearly imitate the real world.

Speed of Scene Movement

The Scene Movement must be realistic as to the speed of the transition of the scene it must observe a real-time speed.

Text Description

Text must be clear and sharp in the Virtual Reality System. It must not get in the way when the user is navigating through the system.

Three I's by Krueger (1991)

Immersion

the user must feel he/she is the center of the virtual environment imitating like that of the real world. Each time the user's senses are tapped the more and more he/she would be able to immerse himself/herself to the virtual environment

Interaction

Makes the user more immerse to the virtual environment, he/she must continuously interact with the virtual environment at the same time the virtual environment would interact with the user

Imagination

Imagination in VR is an imaginary world created by the user's mind. Thus, everything the user wills can happen to the virtual world that of which will make it more interesting to the user and the same time make them more immerse to the virtual environment.

Virtual Reality Model by Horan (1997)

Primary Pain Points

Marketing the Eco-Park to everyone

Being able to make the user have the "feel" for the eco-park

Enticing the user to come to the eco-park

Ideate

Conceptual Framework

The study's conceptual framework used a basic input-process-output model. The input phase includes the different points of interest and a map of the Panguil River Eco-Park, which is used in the application's development

The tools used for data gathering were interviews, exploration inside the eco-park, and usability testing. Photos were taken during the exploration in the eco-park for reference in making the virtual environment. Secondly, the general manager was interviewed for information about the different points of interest. With all the data gathered, a documentary script was created for the narration in the application.

Three Phases of Application Development

Behaviour Module Design

This module covers the interaction of the user in the application that of which it would cover the integration of the 3D virtual environment to the player controller, with the use of Unity3D, so that the user can interact and roam around the virtual environment. The interactivity of the user to the virtual environment is based on the Virtual Reality Model of Horan (1997).

The Virtual Reality Model of Horan consists of two parts namely: the Actual Reality and the Virtual Reality. The Actual Reality consists of the participant or the user whereas the user would interact with the virtual reality while the Virtual Reality consists of the environmental tools, the virtual environment, the device and the other environments. The Environmental Tools is divided into three parts: the Environment Model, Interaction Model, and Resources,

which would together create the Virtual Environment.

The Environmental Models is the actual 3D Model of the eco-park while the Interaction model would be the one responsible for the interaction of the user to the virtual environment in the study it would be the player controller. Lastly, the resources, these are the tools used in creating the environmental model and the interaction model and that would be Autodesk Maya and Unity3D.

Next is the device this would be the iPad, this is the means of the user to interact with the player controller to interact with the virtual environment. Lastly, the other environment such as the network model but the application does not need an Internet connection to work.

which would together create the Virtual Environment.

Multimedia Creation

This phase covers the over-all visual aesthetics of the application, thus includes the user interface. The design of the user interface observed the Three I’s by Krueger (1991).

The first “I” is immersion, the user interface of the application was designed to attract the users attention to the virtual environment, less objects are placed on the screen such as mini-map, controllers, dropdown menu and a compass. It will also portray that the user of the application is the center of things inside the virtual environment thus upon exploration of the virtual environment it increases the users degree of immersion to the application.

The second “I” is interaction, the user, using the controllers, can freely roam around the virtual environment. Lastly, the third “I” is imagination, since the virtual environment was designed to imitate the actual eco-park, it will trigger the imagination of the user, as it would portray that they are actually roaming around the actual eco-park. Additionally, roaming the 3D virtual environment can outcome to many possibilities depending on how the user will use the application

This phase covers the over-all visual aesthetics of the application, thus includes the user interface. The design of the user interface observed the Three I’s by Krueger (1991).

Model Construction

The Environmental Model is the actual 3D Model of the eco-park, while the Interaction model would be the one responsible for the interaction of the user to the virtual environment in the study it would be the player controller. Lastly, the resources are the tools used in creating the environmental model and the interaction model, and that would be Autodesk Maya and Unity3D.

The virtual environment was created using Autodesk Maya as the modelling and texturing tool. Models were based on the pictures collected during the exploration of the eco-park. The first created models were the buildings inside the eco-park, followed by the landscape of the eco-park.

Actual (L) and 3D (R) structure of the Cottages

Actual (L) and 3D (R) structure of the Ambon-Ambon Falls

Model Scene Integration. This includes the process of combining the user interfaces created, the narration and the virtual environment. The process was done in Unity3D where different models were placed based on the picture collected and in the top view of the eco-park via Google Maps.

Main Menu Interface (L) and Virtual Tour Interface (R)

Visual Aesthetics

The objects and scenes that were implemented in the system must be as nearly attractive as the real world and the image quality used must be strictly observed since it tends the user to be immersed to the environment. Text used in the system must be clear, sharp and must not get in the way when the user is navigating through the system for a better use of experience for the users.

Sensory Simulation & Navigation

This is divided into two, namely: auditory and visual. Auditory pertains to the natural sounds such as bird’s chirming, winds blowing, and flowing rivers that allows user to hear on the virtual environment. Visual was the scene movement must be realistic as to the speed of the transition of the scene it must observe a real-time speed. Users must also be able to freely roam the virtual environment. The user must freely navigate and roam through the virtual reality system to increase the feeling of being inside the VR system.

Prototype

A Captivating Mobile Application

The mobile Virtual tour application will be deployed on the iPad. In 2015, this iOS device was capable enough to run a Virtual Environment smoothly while still being handy and mobile. We also chose the iPad because iOS tablets or iPads have a percentage of 92% percent compared to the Android tablet percentage, which had 8% of the total percentage of tablet activation from January to March 2014. StatCounter (2015) also illustrated that as of 2014 to 2015, iOS tablets had 70.54% percent of usage in the Philippines compared to Android tablets, having only 28.4%

The mobile app includes a 3D tour of the eco-park; it provides a navigational guide upon choosing the points of interest yet it will not prohibit users to freely navigate through the virtual environment but it will just provide a guide on how to get to the point of interest.

Test

The goal of the application is to market the eco-park in the Philippines but also internationally. Since the eco-park is located in a remote province of the Philippines, marketing them to the public is always a struggle. Eco-parks are hard to market remotely as users need to have the "feel" of the eco-park to be enticed to come since travelling to the location needs a considerable amount of time and having the users at least know what to expect or even get a glimpse of the eco-parks helps. The goal of the user testing is to test if the application covered the following: