MetaDragonBoat: Exploring Paddling Techniques of Virtual Dragon Boating in a Metaverse Campus

TL;DR

This paper addresses preserving Dragon Boat Festival heritage by enabling virtual participation through MetaDragonBoat, a VR system built on a digital twin campus and three paddling techniques reaching a broad audience. It combines a Unity-based virtual dragon boat with a novel Exertion Controller that provides water-like resistance, alongside Joystick and IMU-based baselines, to elicit varying levels of physical exertion. The study finds that arm-based paddling (IC/EC) increases heart rate and workload compared to JC, with similar simulator sickness across conditions, suggesting feasible, engaging experiences for non-professional users. The work advances cultural heritage preservation and accessibility by integrating immersive technology, physical feedback, and rigorous evaluation, offering design insights for scalable, inclusive VR sports experiences.

Abstract

The preservation of cultural heritage, as mandated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is integral to sustainable urban development. This paper focuses on the Dragon Boat Festival, a prominent event in Chinese cultural heritage, and proposes leveraging Virtual Reality (VR), to enhance its preservation and accessibility. Traditionally, participation in the festival's dragon boat races was limited to elite athletes, excluding broader demographics. Our proposed solution, named MetaDragonBoat, enables virtual participation in dragon boat racing, offering immersive experiences that replicate physical exertion through a cultural journey. Thus, we build a digital twin of a university campus located in a region with a rich dragon boat racing tradition. Coupled with three paddling techniques that are enabled by either commercial controllers or physical paddle controllers with haptic feedback, diversified users can engage in realistic rowing experiences. Our results demonstrate that by integrating resistance into the paddle controls, users could simulate the physical effort of dragon boat racing, promoting a deeper understanding and appreciation of this cultural heritage.

Figures (9)

• Figure 1: A digital twin of physical and virtual dragon boat.
• Figure 2: The digital twin of the dragon boat and the virtual campus adjacent to scenic rivers in China's Lingnan region. (1) Head-mounted display (HMD) users interacting with the dragon boat mock-up, while users equipped with our proposed hardware simulate rowing the boat; (2) A bird's-eye view of the virtual campus; (3a) A zoom-in view from the red-colour box in (2); and (3b) a further zoom-in reveals the yellow-coloured dragon boat.
• Figure 3: 3D UIs for (1) paddling controls and boat navigation, where the two circles depict the paddling angles, e.g., 337°, controlling the boat movements, e.g., (2) Sprint, (3) Reverse and (4) Spin.
• Figure 4: Joysticks (1) for paddling and movements (2).
• Figure 5: Forearm mid-air movements with IMU controllers.