Challenges and New Trends in Rendering for Virtual and Augmented Reality

Dear Colleagues,

With the larger and larger spread of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology in recent years, new requirements for better rendering, visualization, immersion, and interaction have been expected by different fields adopting the technology. As fields such as architecture, advertising, industrial inspection, education, medicine and film and game development continue to develop the potential of these technologies, new opportunities for advancement and potential problems have arisen. How can we achieve more realistic shadows and illumination in AR application both indoor and outdoor? How can we better introduce HDR rendering to VR application to better simulate how the human eye reacts to light changes? What is required to bring a more seamless walking and interaction experience to VR, to both novice and experienced users? Where is the balance between creating beautiful and immersive AR and VR environments and managing visual and cognitive clutter for the users? Can VR and AR be used for better data visualization and can the different types of modalities they bring be used to extend the ways that users perceive both qualitative and quantitative information? Both AR and VR have the potential to push collaboration forward in new ways and this requires us to rethink the way we visualize and render 3D environments. Moreover, achieving realistic, low-latency and dynamically adapting rendering for VR and AR would require merging their fields with research into deep learning and artificial intelligence, haptics and multimodal interactions, audio analysis and many more.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide an outlet for interesting and novel studies in VR and AR, that tackle problems and new opportunities within rendering, visualization and immersion. We welcome new and exciting research into existing issues, benchmarks and overviews of the state-of-the-art, as well as insights into new possibilities for utilizing VR and AR in different fields. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Shadow and lighting rendering in VR and AR
• Visualization of large-scale objects in AR
• Rendering of subterranean, inside and hidden object features in AR
• Big data visualization, analytics and interaction in VR and AR
• Perception of scale, spaces and motion in VR and AR
• Rendering techniques for optimization, user guidance and higher fidelity visualization in VR
• Computer graphics and display technologies for VR and AR
• Computer vision, deep learning and AI for VR and AR
• Multimodal interaction in VR and AR
• Rendering techniques for improving of user wellbeing in VR and AR
• Rendering techniques for collaborative VR and AR experiences
• Combining rendering and audio analysis for VR and AR
• Rendering techniques for content creation and moderation in VR and AR
• State-of-the-art reviews and benchmarks of VR and AR technologies

This program intends to provide an opportunity for early career scientists to enhance their editing, networking, and organizational skills and to work closely with our journal to gain more editorial experience. Early career scientists who have novel ideas for new Special Issues of Electronics (ISSN: 2079-9292) will act as Guest Editors under the mentorship of an experienced scientist; this mentor could be a member of the Electronics Editorial Board or may be from other well-established research institutes or laboratories, etc.

Certificates and awards:

When the Special Issue is closed, the Editorial Office will provide official certificates for all of the mentors. The young scholars involved in the program will be prioritized as candidates for Electronics Young Investigator Awards in the future.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Electronics Editorial Office ([email protected] or [email protected]), and we will discuss the process (mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail.

Dr. Ivan A. Nikolov
Dr. Claus B. Madsen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• rendering in VR/AR
• shadows/lighting in VR/AR
• large scale objects in AR
• subterranean/hidden objects in AR
• big data visualization and analysis in VR/AR
• rendering techniques for user guidance in VR
• computer graphics in VR/AR
• display technologies for VR/AR
• computer vision/deep learning for VR/AR
• rendering techniques for user health and wellbeing in VR/AR
• perception and presence in VR/AR
• combining audio and video techniques for VR/AR
• content creation and moderation rendering for VR/AR
• state-of-the-art reviews and benchmarks for VR/AR