Investigating the network connectivity requirements for an interactive high-resolution virtual training session

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The proportion of the seniors' population of Canada is projected to increase. This results in an increasing number of persons suffering from physical and cognitive impairments, necessitating a move to a care facility. Statistics Canada reports that more than half a million people live with dementia; this number is increasing at a higher rate than a decade ago. While currently there is no cure for dementia, there is evidence of how to delay the onset of the disease by keeping a brain-healthy life style. This research offers a novel approach through a virtual interactive social environment that has many applications in different fields. The industrial partner of this project, TELUS Communications Inc. is interested in leveraging its core competencies in communication technologies and new product commercialization to bring an innovative virtual connection product for seniors to market. To support the low time latency and high bandwidth requirements of interactive virtual applications TELUS's 5G network will be a great platform for implementation.****The aim of this project is to investigate the requirements for a social interactive virtual reality (VR) environment as the first stage of a larger project, which will be to design a full social VR for cognitive training of seniors in an interactive session remotely. We will start investigating the hardware that is required for connecting an iPad or an Android tablet to a TV monitor along with the software requirement for transferring the screen of the user's (a senior's) device to another user's (a trainer's) screen through Internet. Using one of our research team's developed immersive VR, we will investigate the minimum bandwidth required for smooth transmission of the data. The outcome of this research will be used to develop a prototype through future collaborations with the industrial partner to develop a social VR for training cognitive function of seniors and those with cognitive impairments.****