Application of the Simplified HMD-Based VR System to Road Design Process (original) (raw)

In road design, it is necessary to accurately grasp the three-dimensional (3D) terrain features; virtual reality (VR) technologies can in this regard. In this paper, we present our road design system using a simplified head-mounted display (HMD) and a USB stick controller, which a designer can use to draw road lines based on control points. To evaluate the utility of the system, comparison experiments with contour diagrams and CG systems are conducted, showing that the system effectively understands the topography and the 3D shape of the planned road. However, fatigue and sickness were observed in subjects, owing to the weight of simplified HMD and VR-related nausea, respectively. In the future, a multi-user environment will be considered.