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

EAGER：针对行动障碍人士的虚拟现实康复游戏中的存在和导航

• 批准号: 1153229
• 负责人: John Quarles
• 金额: $ 23.27万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at San Antonio
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1153229&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Presence; Navigation; Virtual; Reality

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.

“存在”一词是指用户参与或实际成为的感受，即沉浸式虚拟环境（VE）或虚拟现实（VR），通常称为它。 尽管研究人员已经从经验研究了15年以上，但他们通常只专注于没有残疾的人。 因此，这些研究的发现是否适用于流动性障碍的人，尚不清楚。 PI的一部分是基于他的个人经历，假设实际上许多先前的结果可能与流动性障碍的人（例如，从中风，多发性硬化症或帕金森氏病）中得出的人无关。 这些人中的许多人都有感觉缺陷（例如，腿和脚的麻木），并使用辅助设备（例如拐杖，步行者或轮椅），这会影响他们在虚拟空间中导航的方式。 反过来，这可能会影响他们的存在经验。VR游戏旨在使用户能够作为沉浸式游戏的一部分进行康复练习（例如，以良好的形式练习行走）。 他们的目的是通过图形，音频和3D用户界面来吸引用户的感官，并在设计正确时已被证明可以增强动力，这是成功康复的关键因素。 但是，这些游戏尚未广泛用于身体康复，这很可能是由于许多关于流动性障碍者如何在VE内导航以及这如何影响其存在经历的基本问题。 在这项探索性研究中，PI试图更好地了解此类问题，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）合作进行一系列实证研究。 作为初步工作，他目前正在研究诸如搭配拐杖行走的人进行的替代导航方法，例如真正的步行，虚拟步行和飞行影响力。尽管初步研究仍在进行中，但最初的结果表明，与没有行动不足的人相比，与拐杖行走的人相比，步行者的存在较低。 PI计划关注VR的许多基本方面，这些方面可能影响导航和存在，尤其是化身（身体的虚拟表示以及辅助设备（例如虚拟甘蔗））和视野（现实世界中典型的人类视野（​​现实世界中的典型人类视野）大约是120度，但在典型的VE中却较低，这可能会使某些人感到复杂，因为这可能会使某些人感到复杂化。 通过这些研究，PI将开发一份新的存在调查表，该问卷是针对移动性障碍者量身定制的，可以将其纳入现有的存在调查表中。 这项研究的结果将具有潜在的变革性，因为这些发现将挑战并可能破坏在VR和康复游戏领域中存在的理论和观点。Boader的影响：这项探索性研究将为更高有效的人群造成更高的有效的范围而在VR中更好地理解VR的基础。康复。 反过来，这最终可以改善康复的依从性，从而导致移动性损害的人的生活质量改善。 此外，得克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校（UTSA）是少数派服务机构。 PI启动了一个UTSA游戏开发俱乐部，他计划扩展，作为少数学生参与VR Games Research的门户。