The Implementation and Validation of a Virtual Environment for Training Powered Wheelchair Manoeuvres
Abstract
Navigating a powered wheelchair and avoiding collisions is often a daunting task for new wheelchair users. It takes time and practice to gain the coordination needed to become a competent driver and this can be even more of a challenge for someone with a disability. We present a cost-effective virtual reality (VR) application that takes advantage of consumer level VR hardware. The system can be easily deployed in an assessment centre or for home use, and does not depend on a specialized high-end virtual environment such as a Powerwall or CAVE. This paper reviews previous work that has used virtual environments technology for training tasks, particularly wheelchair simulation. We then describe the implementation of our own system and the first validation study carried out using thirty three able bodied volunteers. The study results indicate that at a significance level of 5% then there is an improvement in driving skills from the use of our VR system. We thus have the potential to develop the competency of a wheelchair user whilst avoiding the risks inherent to training in the real world. However, the occurrence of cybersickness is a particular problem in this application that will need to be addressed.
N. W. John, S. R. Pop, T. W. D. Day, P. D. Ritsos, and C. J. Headleand, “The Implementation and Validation of a Virtual Environment for Training Powered Wheelchair Manoeuvres,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 1867–1878, May 2018.
doi:10.1109/TVCG.2017.2700273 Presented at IEEE VR 2018
Bibtex
@article{John-et-al-TVCG-2018,
author = {John, Nigel W. and Pop, Serban R. and Day, Thomas W. Day and Ritsos, Panagiotis D. and Headleand, C. J.},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics},
title = {{The Implementation and Validation of a Virtual Environment for Training Powered Wheelchair Manoeuvres}},
year = {2018},
volume = {24},
number = {5},
pages = {1867-1878},
doi = {10.1109/TVCG.2017.2700273},
issn = {1077-2626},
month = may
}
