The Development of an Autonomously Interacting Avatar within a Virtual Reality Environment for Researching the Anticipation Ability in Martial Arts

预判领域体育科学研究的目标之一是创造逼真的环境。研究表明，与真实环境非常相似的虚拟环境会引起运动员的真实反应。以往的研究已经证实，虚拟现实（VR）可以成功地应用于这一目的。在这方面，虚拟现实比二维投影屏幕和计算机显示有许多优点。VR的首要优势在于它的第三维度能够让用户产生空间感。VR的进一步好处是高标准的生态有效性，标准化，可控性以及操纵选定参数（例如时空遮挡）的可能性。然而，据我们所知，在创建虚拟对手方面仍然存在很大的劣势。因此，这些虚拟系统既不可能对真实运动员的运动或动作做出反应，也不具有互动性。在与开姆尼茨工业大学计算机科学系的合作下，将开发一个交互式虚拟对手来克服这些缺陷。基于规则系统，生成了一个新的虚拟角色，它继承了必要的短反应时间，并且可以对真实的运动员做出反应。此外，化身将具有最逼真的外观。从计算机图形学的角度来看，从捕获运动数据到虚拟对手骨架的交互式动画及其网格（数字人类外观）的现实呈现的工作流程的可用性研究仍然存在缺陷。此外，在本项目中需要评估是否可以使用混合计算方法（同时在图形处理单元（GPU）和中央处理单元（CPU）上进行计算）来实现我们的目标。除此之外，我们还必须评估交互式对手的多功能性。更具体地说，评估将包含a)现实生活中的对手，b)非交互式对手和c)此处生成的交互式对手的反应的比较。最后，在本项目过程中获得的结果将被评估，关于自主交互化身的概念是否可以成功地适用于类似类型的武术。

One goal of sports scientific research in the field of anticipation is to create realistic environments. It has been shown that virtual environments that are very similar to real settings evoke realistic reactions in athletes. Previous studies have confirmed that Virtual Reality (VR) can be successfully applied for this purpose. Therein, Virtual Reality has many advantages over the presentation by two dimensional projection screens and computer displays. Amongst the first and foremost advantages of VR is the third dimension that generates a feeling of spatial perception within the users. Further benefits of VR are the high standard of ecological validity, standardization, controllability as well as the possibility to manipulate selected parameters (e.g. temporal and spatial occlusion). However, as far as we know, there is still a big disadvantage in regards to the created virtual opponents. Thus, with these virtual systems it is neither possible to respond to the movements or actions of a real athlete, nor are they interactive. In cooperation with the department of computer science of the Chemnitz University of Technology an interactive virtual opponent shall be developed to overcome these deficits. Based on a rule system, a novel avatar is generated which inherits the necessary short reaction times and which can respond to the real athlete. In addition, the avatar will have a most realistic appearance. From the computer graphics point of view there is still a deficit in the research of the availability of a workflow from the capturing of movement data up to an interactive animation of the virtual opponents skeleton and a realistic presentation of its mesh (the digital humans outward appearance). Moreover, it shall be evaluated in the present project whether a hybrid method of computation (computations done on the graphical processing unit (GPU) and the central processing unit (CPU) simultaneously) can be used to realize our goals.Beyond that, the interactive opponent has to be evaluated in regards to its versatility. More specifically, the evaluation will contain a comparison of reactions of a) an opponent in real life, b) the not interactive opponent and c) the here generated interactive opponent.Finally, the results acquired in the course of the present project will be evaluated concerning the question whether the concept of an autonomously interacting avatar can be successfully adapted to similar types of martial arts.