HCC: Small: Determining the Effects of Latency in Virtual Reality Physical Rehabilitation

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Although the effect of latency (i.e., how quickly a system can respond to user input) on users has been one of the fundamental research areas in virtual reality (VR) for many years, latency's effect on persons with physical disabilities is still unknown. The PI's objective in this project is to acquire a better understanding of how latency of visual feedback in VR can impact interaction performance, perception, and subjective experience for users with reaction time and reflex deficits (e.g., due to neurological, vestibular, balance issues), and to investigate how this ultimately impacts the effectiveness of VR-based rehabilitation. The PI's central hypothesis, based on preliminary data, is that latency will be less perceivable but will have a more significant impact on interaction performance for persons with disabilities as compared to healthy persons. To test this hypothesis, the PI will focus on the main set of applications typically used in VR rehabilitation: games, exercise, and accessibility. He will explore, for members of the target community, latency's impact in VR rehabilitation games, on the effectiveness of visual feedback during rehabilitation exercises in virtual environments (VE), and on accessibility in a VE. Through a series of empirical studies, the PI will determine latency thresholds in VR with respect to interaction performance, physiological response, perception, and subjective impressions. Broader Impacts: Project outcomes will afford a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of VR as a medium for rehabilitation. If the PI's hypothesis is confirmed, the potentially negative implications for the efficacy of VR-based rehabilitation may disrupt accepted theories and revolutionize design guidelines for this type of rehabilitation. Alternatively, this research may inspire other researchers to develop approaches to combat latency in VR specifically for disabled persons, which will also produce further vertical advancement in the field. More generally, this research will provide a critical step towards the grand challenge of universal usability in VR.