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1. Situational awareness of COVID pandemic data using virtual reality

   https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2470-1173.2021.13.ERVR-177  

   Sharma, Sharad ; Bodempudi, Sri Teja ( March 2021 , Electronic Imaging)

   null (Ed.)

   Situational awareness provides the decision making capability to identify, process, and comprehend big data. In our approach, situational awareness is achieved by integrating and analyzing multiple aspects of data using stacked bar graphs and geographic representations of the data. We provide a data visualization tool to represent COVID pandemic data on top of the geographical information. The combination of geospatial and temporal data provides the information needed to conduct situational analysis for the COVID-19 pandemic. By providing interactivity, geographical maps can be viewed from different perspectives and offer insight into the dynamical aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic for the fifty states in the USA. We have overlaid dynamic information on top of a geographical representation in an intuitive way for decision making. We describe how modeling and simulation of data increase situational awareness, especially when coupled with immersive virtual reality interaction. This paper presents an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment and mobile environment for data visualization using Oculus Rift head-mounted display and smartphones. This work combines neural network predictions with human-centric situational awareness and data analytics to provide accurate, timely, and scientific strategies in combatting and mitigating the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Testing and evaluation of the data visualization tool have been done with real-time feed of COVID pandemic data set for immersive environment, non-immersive environment, and mobile environment. 

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2. Real-Time Data Analytics of COVID Pandemic Using Virtual Reality

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77599-5_9  

   Sharma, S ; Bodempudi, S.T ; Reehl, A ( July 2021 , Lecture notes in computer science)

   Chen, J.Y.C. ; Fragomeni, G (Ed.)

   Visualizing data effectively is critical for the discovery process in the age of big data. We are exploring the use of immersive virtual reality platforms for scientific data visualization for COVID-19 pandemic. We are interested in finding ways to better understand, perceive and interact with multidimensional data in the field of cognition technology and human-computer interaction. Immersive visualization leads to a better understanding and perception of relationships in the data. This paper presents a data visualization tool for immersive data visualizations based on the Unity development platform. The data visualization tool is capable of visualizing the real-time COVID pandemic data for the fifty states in the USA. Immersion provides a better understanding of the data than traditional desktop visualization tools and leads to more human-centric situational awareness insights. This research effort aims to identify how graphical objects like charts and bar graphs depicted in Virtual Reality tools, developed in accordance with an analyst’s mental model can enhance an analyst’s situation awareness. Our results also suggest that users feel more satisfied when using immersive virtual reality data visualization tools and thus demonstrate the potential of immersive data analytics. 

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3. Immersive Virtual Reality Training Module for Active Shooter Events

   https://doi.org/10.2352/EI.2022.34.12.ERVR-299  

   Sharad Sharma, Sri Teja ( January 2022 , Proceedings of the IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging (EI 2022), in the Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality)

   Active shooter events are not emergencies that can be reasonably anticipated. However, these events do occur more than we think, and there is a critical need for an effective emergency preparedness plan that can increase the likelihood of saving lives and reducing casualties in the event of an active shooting incident. There has been a major concern about the lack of tools available to allow for modeling and simulation of human behavior during emergency response training. Over the past few decades, virtual reality-based training for emergency response and decision making has been recognized as a novel alternative for disaster preparedness. This paper presents an immersive virtual reality (VR) training module for active shooter events for a building emergency response. There are two immersive active shooter modules developed: occupant’s module and Security personnel module. We have developed an immersive virtual reality training module for active shooter events using an Oculus for the course of action, visualization, and situational awareness for active shooter events. The immersive environment is implemented in Unity 3D where the user has an option to enter the environment as security personnel or as an occupant in the building. The immersive VR training module offers a unique platform for emergency response and decision making training. The platform allows for collecting data on different what-if scenarios in response to active shooter events that impact the actions of security personnel and occupants in a building. The data collected can be used to educate security personnel on how to reduce response times. Moreover, security personnel can be trained to respond to a variety of emergencies safely and securely without ever being exposed to real-world dangers. 

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4. VIRD: Immersive Match Video Analysis for High-Performance Badminton Coaching

   Lin, T. ; Aouididi, A. ; Chen, Z. ; Beyer, J. ; Pfister, H. ; Wang, J. ( January 2023 , IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics)

   Badminton is a fast-paced sport that requires a strategic combination of spatial, temporal, and technical tactics. To gain a competitive edge at high-level competitions, badminton professionals frequently analyze match videos to gain insights and develop game strategies. However, the current process for analyzing matches is time-consuming and relies heavily on manual note-taking, due to the lack of automatic data collection and appropriate visualization tools. As a result, there is a gap in effectively analyzing matches and communicating insights among badminton coaches and players. This work proposes an end-to-end immersive match analysis pipeline designed in close collaboration with badminton professionals, including Olympic and national coaches and players. We present VIRD, a VR Bird (i.e., shuttle) immersive analysis tool, that supports interactive badminton game analysis in an immersive environment based on 3D reconstructed game views of the match video. We propose a top-down analytic workflow that allows users to seamlessly move from a high-level match overview to a detailed game view of individual rallies and shots, using situated 3D visualizations and video. We collect 3D spatial and dynamic shot data and player poses with computer vision models and visualize them in VR. Through immersive visualizations, coaches can interactively analyze situated spatial data (player positions, poses, and shot trajectories) with flexible viewpoints while navigating between shots and rallies effectively with embodied interaction. We evaluated the usefulness of VIRD with Olympic and national-level coaches and players in real matches. Results show that immersive analytics supports effective badminton match analysis with reduced context-switching costs and enhances spatial understanding with a high sense of presence. 

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5. Real-Time Data Visualization to Enhance Situational Awareness of COVID pandemic

   https://doi.org/10.1109/CSCI51800.2020.00066  

   Sharma, Sharad ; Bodempudi, Sri Teja ; Reehl, Aishwarya ( December 2020 , 2020 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI))

   null (Ed.)

   Real-time data visualization can enhance decision making and empower teams with human-centric situational awareness insights. Decision making relies on data which comes in overwhelming velocity and volume, that one cannot comprehend it without some layer of abstraction. This research effort aims to demonstrate the data visualization of the COVID pandemic in real-time for the fifty states in the USA. Our proposed data visualization tool includes both conceptual and data-driven information. The data visualization includes stacked bar graphs, geographic representations of the data, and offers situational awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper describes the development and testing of the data visualization tool using the Unity gaming engine. Testing has been done with a real-time feed of the COVID-19 data set for immersive environment, non-immersive environment, and mobile environment. 

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