Course Virtual Reality

Prof. Dr. Bernd Fröhlich
M.Sc. Sebastian Mühlhaus
M.Sc. Ephraim Schott
B.Sc. Tony Jan Zöppig

(This is a past course, visit the WS2023/24 Virtual Reality Course website for current information)

In recent years, Virtual Reality (VR) has become increasingly popular in research, entertainment and education. VR systems allow one or more users to interact with a computer-simulated environment presented in 3D on a stereoscopic display. In this course, you will study the theoretical, technical, and applied foundations of modern Virtual Reality systems.

The course starts by teaching the required essentials of computer graphics and stereoscopic viewing to realize VR applications. After that, you will explore the fundamentals of 3D input devices and 3D interaction techniques, including selection, manipulation, and navigation in virtual environments. The final part of the course builds on the previously acquired knowledge and focuses on collaborative VR systems for multiple collocated and distributed users. 

The lecture will be accompanied by lab classes, which make use of the latest Virtual Reality technology such as multi-viewer 3D projection systems and high-resolution head-mounted displays. It will be your task to implement and evaluate various 3D interaction techniques using these immersive display systems, six degrees of freedom tracking and 3D input devices. Depending on the situation, you can also work on the lab class assignments from home. We will try to provide enough hardware for this.

We plan to conduct selected lectures and exercises directly in virtual reality to test the concept of "Teaching VR in VR". If possible, we will equip all participants with HMDs. If this is not possible, these selected events will be offered several times to allow smaller groups to participate interactively.

Online Resources

The course will be administered on Moodle. If you are enrolled into the course, please follow the link and log in with your university account.

Course Organization

Instructor

Prof. Dr. Bernd Fröhlich [e-mail]

Teaching Assistants

M.Sc. Sebastian Mühlhaus [e-mail]
M.Sc. Ephraim Schott [e-mail]
B.Sc. Tony Jan Zöppig [e-mail]

Live Lecture Schedule

Thursdays, 3:15 PM - 4:45 PM in SR 2.16 (Schwanseestraße 143)
Introduction on 13 October 2022

Lab Class Schedule (two groups)

Fridays in VR Lab (Schwanseestraße 143), 

Group A: 9:15 AM - 10:45 PM
Group B: 11:00 - 12:30 PM

Introduction on 14 October 2022

Target Audience

M.Sc. Computer Science for Digital Media
M.Sc. Computer Science and Media
M.Sc. Human-Computer Interaction

ECTS

Lecture and Lab Class: 6 ECTS

Grading

Your grade for this course is determined by the successful completion of the lab class (40%) and a final oral examination (60%).

During the lab class, you will be asked to complete both theory and practice assignments. Assignments have a gradually increasing weight towards your final grade for the lab class:

Assignment 1: 10%
Assignment 2: 10%
Assignment 3: 20%
Assignment 4: 20%
Assignment 5: 40%

The weighted average grade across all assignments is your total grade for the lab class. You need to achieve at least a total score of 50% to qualify for the exam. Group work in pairs is permitted.

The final examination is an oral discussion covering all topics of the lecture and lab class. Appointments for oral examinations will be made individually at the end of the course.

The following scheme is applied to convert percentages to grades:

GradePercentage
1.0>= 95.0
1.1[93.5 - 95.0)
1.2[92.0 - 93.5)
1.3[90.5 - 92.0)
1.4[89.0 - 90.5)
1.5[87.5 - 89.0)
1.6[86.0 - 87.5)
1.7[84.5 - 86.0)
1.8[83.0 - 84.5)
1.9[81.5 - 83.0)
2.0[80.0 - 81.5)
2.1[78.5 - 80.0)
2.2[77.0 - 78.5)
2.3[75.5 - 77.0)
2.4[74.0 - 75.5)
2.5[72.5 - 74.0)
[...]
3.0[65.0 - 66.5)
[...]
4.0[50.0 - 51.5)
5.0 (fail)[00.0 - 50.0)