EAGER: Presence and Navigation in Virtual Reality Rehabilitation Games for Mobility Impaired Persons

术语存在是指用户参与沉浸式虚拟环境（VE）或通常称为虚拟现实（VR）的程度或实际成为其一部分的感觉。 虽然研究人员已经对存在进行了超过15年的实证研究，但他们通常只关注非残疾人。 因此，这些研究的结果是否适用于行动不便的人还不得而知。 部分基于他的个人经历，PI假设，事实上，这些先前的结果中的许多可能与患有中风、多发性硬化症或帕金森病等行动不便的人无关。 这些人中的许多人具有感觉缺陷（例如，腿和脚麻木），并使用辅助设备（例如，手杖、步行者或轮椅），这影响了他们在虚拟空间中导航的方式。 这反过来又会影响他们的临场感。VR游戏旨在使用户能够进行康复锻炼（例如，练习以良好的形式行走）作为沉浸式游戏的一部分。 它们旨在通过图形、音频和3D用户界面来吸引用户的感官，并且当设计得当时，已被证明可以增强动力，这是成功康复的关键因素。 然而，这些游戏尚未广泛用于身体康复，很可能是由于许多未回答的基本问题，即行动不便的人如何在VE中导航，以及这如何影响他们的存在体验。 在这项探索性研究中，PI试图更好地了解这些问题，以及它们对用户康复动机的潜在影响。 为此，PI将与圣安东尼奥神经病学研究所（NISA）合作开展一系列实证研究。 作为前期工作，他目前正在研究真实的行走、虚拟行走和飞行等替代导航方法如何影响拄拐行走的人的存在感。虽然前期研究仍在进行中，但初步结果表明，拄拐行走的人比没有行动障碍的人体验到更低的存在感。 PI计划接下来关注可能影响导航和存在的VR的一些基本方面，特别是化身（身体的虚拟表示以及虚拟手杖等辅助设备）和视野（真实的世界中的典型人类视野约为120度，但在典型的VE中要低得多，这可能会使一些行动不便的人的导航复杂化）。 通过这些研究，PI将开发一种新的存在问卷，该问卷专为行动不便者量身定制，并可纳入现有的存在问卷。 这项研究的结果将具有潜在的变革性，因为研究结果将挑战并可能颠覆VR和康复游戏领域中公认的存在理论和观点。这项探索性研究将为更好地理解行动不便者在VR中的存在奠定基础，这可能会为这一代表性不足的人群提供更有效的沉浸式体验，从而产生更高的动机和更有效的用于康复的VR游戏。 这反过来又可以最终提高康复依从性，从而提高行动不便者的生活质量。 此外，德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校（UTSA）是一所少数民族服务机构。 PI发起了UTSA游戏开发俱乐部，他计划将其扩展为少数民族学生参与VR游戏研究的门户。

The term presence refers to a user's level of involvement in, or feeling of actually being part of, an immersive virtual environment (VE), or virtual reality (VR) as it is commonly called. Although researchers have been empirically studying presence for over 15 years, they have typically only focused on persons without disabilities. So whether the findings from these studies hold true for persons with mobility impairments is unknown. Based in part on his personal experiences, the PI hypothesizes that in fact many of these prior results may not be relevant to persons with mobility impairments deriving, for example, from stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, or Parkinson's disease. Many of these individuals have sensory deficits (e.g., numbness in the legs and feet), and use assistive devices (e.g., canes, walkers, or wheelchairs), which impact the way they navigate through a virtual space. This, in turn, could affect their experience of presence.VR games are intended to enable users to perform rehabilitation exercises (e.g., to practice walking in good form) as part of an immersive game. They aim to engage the user's senses with graphics, audio, and 3D user interfaces, and when properly designed have been shown to enhance motivation, which is a key factor in successful rehabilitation. However these games are not yet in widespread use for physical rehabilitation, most likely due to the many unanswered basic questions about how persons with mobility impairments navigate within a VE and how this affects their experience of presence. In this exploratory research the PI seeks to gain a better understanding of such issues, as well as their potential impact upon the user's motivation for rehabilitation. To these ends the PI will conduct a series of empirical studies in collaboration with the Neurology Institute of San Antonio (NISA). As preliminary work, he is currently studying how alternative navigation methods such as real walking, virtual walking, and flying impact presence for people who walk with canes.Although the preliminary study is still underway, initial results suggest that people who walk with canes experience lower presence than persons without mobility impairments. The PI plans to focus next on a number of fundamental aspects of VR that may affect navigation and presence, especially avatars (virtual representation of the body as well as of assistive devices such as a virtual cane) and field of view (the typical human field of view in the real world is about 120 degrees but it is much lower in a typical VE, which may complicate navigation for some mobility impaired persons). Through these studies, the PI will develop a new presence questionnaire that is tailored to mobility impaired persons and which can be integrated into existing presence questionnaires. The outcomes of this research will be potentially transformative, in that the findings will challenge and potentially disrupt accepted theories and perspectives of presence in the fields of VR and rehabilitation games.Broader Impacts: This exploratory research will lay the foundations for a better understanding of presence in VR for the mobility impaired that may enable more effective immersive experiences for this underrepresented population, thereby resulting to higher motivation and more effective VR games for rehabilitation. This, in turn, could ultimately improve rehabilitation adherence, thereby leading to an improved quality of life for mobility impaired persons. Moreover, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is a minority serving institution. The PI has initiated a UTSA Game Development Club, which he plans to expand as a gateway for minority student involvement in VR games research.