Seminar: Sweat and Survive - the VR Edition

Goal of the Seminar

In this practical seminar, small groups of students (3) will develop a Virtual Reality (VR) fitness application with a twist. Users will be immersed in a virtual environment that guides them through a fitness exercise while motivating them through (virtually) dangerous situations. Each group will be assigned a different exercise to which the virtual environment and feedback should be adapted. In each scenario the threat level should be adaptable from no danger over medium danger to high danger. Finally, each prototype will be evaluated in a small user study.

Registration for the seminar is done via https://seminars.cs.uni-saarland.de/

Learning Goals:

  • How to:
    • conduct a scientific literature review, and based on that,
    • design a conceptualization of an interactive software prototype to finally
    • document the concept in a written report
  • Basics of creating interactive VR applications that use (full) body tracking
  • Basics of designing, implementing, conducting, and analyzing a user study

 

Process

Phase 1 - Basics

You will learn about:

  • The goals and details of the seminar 
  • How to perform a literature review and why
  • How to document the concept of your interactive system in a written report
  • Some related (scientific) VR projects to get inspired

Your group's tasks will be:

  • Form groups of 3
  • Voting for your top three sport exercises (each group should have a different exercise)
  • Think of a concept and base it on a literature research
  • Document your concept in a written report

Phase 2 - Hands-On

You will learn about:

  • Unity 3D, how to create VR applications, and how to interface VR tracking hardware

Your group's tasks will be:

  • Developing a prototype that implements the concept of Phase 1 
  • Prepare and give a presentation about your concept and current development state (mid-term presentation)

Phase 3 - Evaluation and Documentation

You will learn about:

  • How to design, conduct, evaluate, and report a user study
  • How to write up a project report

Your group's tasks will be:

  • Preparing your prototype for a user study
  • Conducting the user study & analyze the results
  • Participating in the studies of the other groups
  • Prepare and give a presentation about your final system and the user study and its results 
  • Write up a final report detailing your project and study

 

Grading

  • The seminar encompasses multiple deliverables (see time table below for the deadlines). All deliverables must be submitted by their respective deadlines. Failing to submit a deliverable results in failing the seminar.
  • The following deliverables and presentations are graded according to the following aspects:

    • Final Concept Document (10%):
      • Clarity of Writing
      • Completeness
      • Adherence to Word Count
      • Originality of Idea
      • Reflection of Related Work

    • Mid-Term Presentation (10%):
      • Clarity and Organization
      • Content Quality
      • Visual Aids
      • Engagement and Delivery
      • Q&A Handling

    • Final Presentation (20%):
      • Clarity and Organization
      • Content Quality
      • Visual Aids
      • Engagement and Delivery
      • Q&A Handling
      • Live-Demo

    • Final Report (20%):
      • Clarity of Writing
      • Completeness
      • Visual Aids

    • Final Prototype (40%):
      • Usability
      • Stability
      • Design
      • Documentation
        • Clarity and Readability
        • Technical Accuracy
        • Visual Presentation

Schedule

Date Room Topic Slides
15.04.2025 - 10:15 - 12:00 DFKI, VisRoom Kickoff & Concept Basics  

27.04.2025 - Deadline (end of day)

   Deliverable: Draft of Concept  
29.04.2025 - 10:15 - 12:00 DFKI, VisRoom Unity Basics + Hardware Introduction  
07.05.2025 - Deadline (end of day)   Deliverable: Final Concept Document  
27.05.2025 - 10:15 - 12:00 DFKI, VisRoom

How To: User Study & Final Report

  
03.06.2025 - 10:15 - 12:00 DFKI, Turing 1 Mid-Term Presentations  
01.07.2025 until 11.07.2025 DFKI, BanaLab User Study Time  
15.07.2025 - 10:15 - 12:00 DFKI, VisRoom Final Presentations inkl. Live-Demo  
20.07.2025 - Deadline (end of day)   Deliverable: Final Report & Documented Prototype  

 

Requirements

Since this is a practical seminar, every student should meet the following minimum requirements:

  • strong programming background
  • experience with Unity, C#, and/or VR technology is a plus (but not strictly required)

 

Progress Control

To ensure a fair and even distribution of the work within the project groups, we require the following measures:

  • All code has to be committed at the provided GitLab
    • Everybody commits their own work
    • When pair programming, note this in the commit message, e.g. "Implemented Feature X - André + Felix"
    • When experimenting and trying out things (that eventually might not be part of the final prototype), still commit such work in Git on a separate branch
  • Sources of all written documents have to be committed at the provided GitLab (e.g. LaTex or Markdown)
    • Everybody commits their own work
    • When pair-writing, note this in the commit message, e.g. "Updated Introduction - André + Felix"

 

Attendance

Attendance is compulsory in this seminar. If attendance is not fulfilled, no certificate can be issued for the course. Exceptions are only possible with a doctor's certificate or if there is a conflict with an examination of another course. Lectures, exercise groups or tutorials of other courses are excluded from this and cannot be used as a reason for absence.

 

Organisation

Felix Kosmalla (felix.kosmalla@dfki.de)
Dr. André Zenner (andre.zenner@dfki.de)
Prof. Dr. Antonio Krüger