A contribution to the definition and automation activity testing for virtual reality systems

Abstract

The process of software development involves a series of activities in which, although the techniques, methods and tools used, errors can still occur in the product. Some activities have been introduced during the development process, including the activities of Verification, Validation and Testing (VV\&T), in order to minimize the occurrence of errors and risk associated. Among the techniques (VV\&T), the testing activity is considered essential in the context of Software Engineering (SE). Several researchers have investigated different testing criteria, in order to obtain a test strategy with low-cost application, but at the same time, with great capacity to reveal errors. Although research in this area is diversified in several lines, gaps still exist, especially ones related to problems specific to some application domains such as Virtual Reality (VR) environments. VR can be defined as a technique that enables the creation of synthetic environments generated by computer and the use of multi-sensory channels, offering the user the possibility to perform operations such as navigation, interaction and immersion. A VR system involves studies and connected resources with perception, hardware, software, user interface, human factors and applications. Despite the variety of VR applications identified in the literature there is currently a lack of research related to the definition and automation of software testing criteria in the scope of VR systems, because those systems have characteristics (peculiar requirements) that require definition or adjustment testing techniques, making applications in this area constituting the high complexity systems. This PhD project that has been conducted aimed at the definition of testing criteria to assist the developer in the creation or evaluation of test data sets in the scope of VR systems. To achieve the objective of this project, we intend to implement a tool to automate the criteria for VR systems. At the end of the work is expected to contribute to the field of Software Engineering and Virtual Reality through empirical evaluations and experiments about the applicability of this tool for VR systems. Furthermore, the implementation of this tool opens the possibility of technology transfer from academia to industry. (AU)