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

在线状态一词指的是用户在沉浸式虚拟环境(VE)或通常所说的虚拟现实(VR)中的参与程度或实际处于其中的感觉。尽管研究人员对存在进行了超过15年的经验研究，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验，PI假设，事实上，这些先前的结果中的许多可能与行动能力障碍的人无关，例如，中风、多发性硬化症或帕金森氏症。这些人中的许多人都有感觉缺陷(例如腿和脚麻木)，并使用辅助设备(例如拐杖、助行器或轮椅)，这影响了他们在虚拟空间中导航的方式。这反过来会影响他们的临场感。VR游戏旨在使用户能够进行康复练习(例如，以良好的状态练习走路)，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，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，这些游戏还没有被广泛用于身体康复，很可能是因为许多尚未回答的基本问题，即行动不便的人如何在VE中导航，以及这如何影响他们的在场体验。在这项探索性研究中，PI试图更好地了解这些问题，以及它们对使用者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，他目前正在研究其他导航方法，如真实行走、虚拟行走和飞行，如何影响拐杖行走的人的临场感。虽然初步研究仍在进行中，但初步结果表明，拐杖行走的人比没有行动障碍的人体验到的临场感更低。PI计划下一步专注于VR的一些可能影响导航和在场的基本方面，特别是虚拟化身(身体以及虚拟拐杖等辅助设备的虚拟表示)和视野(现实世界中典型的人类视野约为120度，但典型的VE的视野要低得多，这可能会使一些行动不便的人的导航变得复杂)。通过这些研究，PI将开发一种新的现场调查问卷，该问卷是为行动不便的人量身定做的，可以整合到现有的现场调查问卷中。这项研究的结果将具有潜在的变革性，因为该发现将挑战和潜在地颠覆在VR和康复游戏领域中被接受的理论和观点。更广泛的影响：这项探索性研究将为更好地理解行动不便的人在VR中的存在奠定基础，从而为这一代表性不足的人群提供更有效的身临其境体验，从而产生更高的动机和更有效的康复VR游戏。这反过来可能最终提高康复的依从性，从而改善行动不便的人的生活质量。此外，德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校(UTSA)是一所少数族裔服务机构。PI发起了一个UTSA游戏开发俱乐部，他计划将其扩大为少数族裔学生参与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.