scholarly journals A Virtual Smash Room for Venting Frustration or Just Having Fun: Participatory Design of Virtual Environments in Digitally Reinforced Cancer Rehabilitation

10.2196/29763 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. e29763
Author(s):  
Johanna Persson ◽  
Douglas Clifford ◽  
Mattias Wallergård ◽  
Ulrika Sandén
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Rehabilitation Program ◽  
Cancer Rehabilitation ◽  
Design Activity ◽  
Free Text ◽  
User Group ◽  
Free Text Response

Background Cancer rehabilitation is central for helping patients and relatives create a functional everyday life based on the changes in life conditions. The needs are highly individual and include physical, mental, and social challenges. Cancer rehabilitation programs offer coping strategies, including guidelines on how to handle emotions. Objective This paper presents a participatory design activity where patients in cancer rehabilitation use a virtual smash room, which is a virtual environment where the user can break things, mainly porcelain or glass items such as vases or plates. The objective is to understand attitudes to, and some effects of, using this application, as well as eliciting ideas of other virtual environments that would be desired. Methods The virtual environment presented here, the virtual smash room, was designed at the request of a patient with cancer who wanted a tool for venting frustration. In this virtual environment, the user can break porcelain, vases, and plates. Patients participating in a week-long cancer rehabilitation program tested the virtual smash room and reported their experiences through a questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised three sections: (1) a subset of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI), (2) a subset of the Virtual Reality Symptoms Questionnaire (VRSQ), and (3) a free-text response section. Results A total of 101 responses were gathered. The results from the IMI questions showed that the participants found the virtual experience enjoyable (mean 4.52, maximum 5, SD 0.73), and it helped them retain their focus (mean 4.44, maximum 5, SD 0.74). The VRSQ revealed that there were only minor symptoms related to general discomfort (5.9%, n=6), fatigue (5.9%, n=6), nausea (3.0%, n=3), and tired eyes (8.9%, n=9), while several participants experienced dizziness (22.8%, n=23). Since only postmeasurements were gathered, nothing could be concluded about the prevalence of these symptoms before testing. The free-text responses indicated that the user group had many ideas for other virtual environments to use in cancer rehabilitation. Conclusions This study presents a concept of using virtual reality in the cancer rehabilitation process and exemplifies activities of patient participation in the design process. Virtual reality has potential in being both distracting and enjoyable, while certain aspects of cybersickness might be especially important to consider for a user group already experiencing physical and mental issues. The results will act as input in the process of further designing virtual applications in digitally reinforced cancer rehabilitation.

scholarly journals A Virtual Smash Room for Venting Frustration or Just Having Fun: Participatory Design of Virtual Environments in Digitally Reinforced Cancer Rehabilitation (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Persson ◽  
Douglas Clifford ◽  
Mattias Wallergård ◽  
Ulrika Sandén
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Rehabilitation Program ◽  
Cancer Rehabilitation ◽  
Design Activity ◽  
Free Text ◽  
User Group ◽  
Free Text Response

BACKGROUND Cancer rehabilitation is central for helping patients and relatives create a functional everyday life based on the changes in life conditions. The needs are highly individual and include physical, mental, and social challenges. Cancer rehabilitation programs offer coping strategies, including guidelines on how to handle emotions. OBJECTIVE This paper presents a participatory design activity where patients in cancer rehabilitation use a virtual smash room, which is a virtual environment where the user can break things, mainly porcelain or glass items such as vases or plates. The objective is to understand attitudes to, and some effects of, using this application, as well as eliciting ideas of other virtual environments that would be desired. METHODS The virtual environment presented here, the virtual smash room, was designed at the request of a patient with cancer who wanted a tool for venting frustration. In this virtual environment, the user can break porcelain, vases, and plates. Patients participating in a week-long cancer rehabilitation program tested the virtual smash room and reported their experiences through a questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised three sections: (1) a subset of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI), (2) a subset of the Virtual Reality Symptoms Questionnaire (VRSQ), and (3) a free-text response section. RESULTS A total of 101 responses were gathered. The results from the IMI questions showed that the participants found the virtual experience enjoyable (mean 4.52, maximum 5, SD 0.73), and it helped them retain their focus (mean 4.44, maximum 5, SD 0.74). The VRSQ revealed that there were only minor symptoms related to general discomfort (5.9%, n=6), fatigue (5.9%, n=6), nausea (3.0%, n=3), and tired eyes (8.9%, n=9), while several participants experienced dizziness (22.8%, n=23). Since only postmeasurements were gathered, nothing could be concluded about the prevalence of these symptoms before testing. The free-text responses indicated that the user group had many ideas for other virtual environments to use in cancer rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS This study presents a concept of using virtual reality in the cancer rehabilitation process and exemplifies activities of patient participation in the design process. Virtual reality has potential in being both distracting and enjoyable, while certain aspects of cybersickness might be especially important to consider for a user group already experiencing physical and mental issues. The results will act as input in the process of further designing virtual applications in digitally reinforced cancer rehabilitation.

Me and My VE, Part 5: Applications in Human Factors Research and Practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 2051-2055
Author(s):  
Randall Spain ◽  
Benjamin Goldberg ◽  
Jeffrey Hansberger ◽  
Tami Griffith ◽  
Jeremy Flynn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Human Factors ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Mixed Reality ◽  
Research Training ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Human Factors Research

Recent advances in technology have made virtual environments, virtual reality, augmented reality, and simulations more affordable and accessible to researchers, companies, and the general public, which has led to many novel use cases and applications. A key objective of human factors research and practice is determining how these technology-rich applications can be designed and applied to improve human performance across a variety of contexts. This session will demonstrate some of the distinct and diverse uses of virtual environments and mixed reality environments in an alternative format. The session will begin with each demonstrator providing a brief overview of their virtual environment (VE) and a description of how it has been used to address a particular problem or research need. Following the description portion of the session, each VE will be set-up at a demonstration station in the room, and session attendees will be encouraged to directly interact with the virtual environment and ask demonstrators questions about their research and inquire about the effectiveness of using VE for research, training, and evaluation purposes. The overall objective of this alternative session is to increase the awareness of how human factors professionals use VE technologies and increase the awareness of the capabilities and limitations of VE in supporting the work of HF professionals.

scholarly journals VIRTUAL REALITY SIMULATION AS THERAPY FOR POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD)

2019 ◽  
Vol 01 (01) ◽  
pp. 24-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Smys S ◽  
Jennifer S. Raj ◽  
Krishna raj N.
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Raspberry Pi ◽  
Virtual Reality Simulation ◽  
Motion Platform ◽  
Person Experience

Virtual reality (VR) technology has the potential to make a person experience anything, anytime, anywhere. It has the ability to influence the human brain that it assumes to be present somewhere that it is really not. In this paper, we exploit this application of the VR technology to simulate virtual environments that can help with PTSD therapy for people affected by trauma due to accident, war, sexual abuse and so on. Several sensors are used to gather the user movements on a motion platform and replicate it in the virtual environment with the help of a Raspberry Pi board and Unreal Developer’s kit. It has flexible interfaces that the clinician can modify the virtual environment according to the requirement for the patient.

scholarly journals Virtual Reality and Assistive Technologies: A Survey

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-57
Author(s):  
Shamima Yasmin
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Sensory Substitution ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Rehabilitation Therapy ◽  
Extensive Survey ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Mental Exercise

This paper conducts an extensive survey on existing Virtual Reality (VR)-based rehabilitation approaches in the context of different types of impairments: mobility, cognitive, and visual. Some VR-based assistive technologies involve repetitions of body movements, some require persistent mental exercise, while some work as sensory substitution systems. A multi-modal VR-based environment can incorporate a number of senses, (i.e., visual, auditory, or haptic) into the system and can be an immense source of motivation and engagement in comparison with traditional rehabilitation therapy. This survey categorizes virtual environments on the basis of different available modalities. Each category is again subcategorized by the types of impairments while introducing available devices and interfaces. Before concluding the survey, the paper also briefly focuses on some issues with existing VR-based approaches that need to be optimized to exploit the utmost benefit of virtual environment-based rehabilitation systems .

Virtual Reality as a Tool for Enhancing Learning in At-Risk Students and Increasing School Inclusion

2017 ◽  
pp. 242-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Panzavolta
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
At Risk Students ◽  
Academic Failure ◽  
School Failure ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
3D Virtual Worlds

The contribution aims at exploring previous and current practices of use of virtual environments, 3d Virtual Worlds also, for inclusion in education. There are many experiences of developing and using virtual environments for the inclusion of disabled and problematic students (autistic student, Asperger Syndrome students, dyslexic students, etc.). The majority of the experimentations gave important beneficial results. In particular, the essential technological characteristics of VR that are beneficial for inclusion are: immersion, presence, interaction, transduction and conceptual change. The design of those environments is sometimes conceived together with the final users, applying participatory design techniques. Virtual environments and Virtual Worlds are being used also in the management of drop-out rates and school failure, by using it for curricular diversification classroom with students in a situation of educational exclusion or academic failure. The contribution will discuss 7 cases of successful use of Virtual Reality at school, ranging from primary to secondary education.

Visiting Tourist Landmarks in Virtual Reality Systems by Real-Walking

2010 ◽  
pp. 180-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Steinicke ◽  
G. Bruder ◽  
J. Jerald ◽  
H. Frenz
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Interaction Space ◽  
Immersive Virtual Environments ◽  
Redirected Walking ◽  
Virtual City

In recent years virtual environments (VEs) have become more and more popular and widespread due to the requirements of numerous application areas in particular in the 3D city visualization domain. Virtual reality (VR) systems, which make use of tracking technologies and stereoscopic projections of three-dimensional synthetic worlds, support better exploration of complex datasets. However, due to the limited interaction space usually provided by the range of the tracking sensors, users can explore only a portion of the virtual environment (VE). Redirected walking allows users to walk through large-scale immersive virtual environments (IVEs) such as virtual city models, while physically remaining in a reasonably small workspace by intentionally injecting scene motion into the IVE. With redirected walking users are guided on physical paths that may differ from the paths they perceive in the virtual world. The authors have conducted experiments in order to quantify how much humans can unknowingly be redirected. In this chapter they present the results of this study and the implications for virtual locomotion user interfaces that allow users to view arbitrary real world locations, before the users actually travel there in a natural environment.

Influence of Physical Characteristics of Routes on Distance Cognition in Virtual Environments

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 777-785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ebru Cubukcu ◽  
Jack L Nasar
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Real World ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Spatial Behavior ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Parking Garage ◽  
The Real ◽  
Predicting Behavior

Discrepanices between perceived and actual distance may affect people's spatial behavior. In a previous study Nasar, using self report of behavior, found that segmentation (measured through the number of buildings) along the route affected choice of parking garage and path from the parking garage to a destination. We recreated that same environment in a three-dimensional virtual environment and conducted a test to see whether the same factors emerged under these more controlled conditions and to see whether spatial behavior in the virtual environment accurately reflected behavior in the real environment. The results confirmed similar patterns of response in the virtual and real environments. This supports the use of virtual reality as a tool for predicting behavior in the real world and confirms increases in segmentation as related to increases in perceived distance.

Social Interaction and Social Development in Virtual Environments

1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie E. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The Subject

Like most new technologies, virtual reality (VR) has been the subject of a great deal of idealization. This paper both debunks that idealization by discussing some problems that certain types of VR could cause and emphasizes how other types of VR could bring the technology closer to its ideal. Virtual reality is divided into four types: social (there are real other people to interact with), nonsocial (other interactants are simulations of people), creative (users can create elements in the virtual environment), and noncreative (users interact with a fixed environment created for them). Nonsocial VR may cause problems by making it difficult for children and adolescents to learn social skills. Noncreative VR is problematic because it places limits on users' creativity and freedom. Engineers developing VR technology are encouraged to develop social and creative VR.

scholarly journals Discretionary Access Controls for a Collaborative Virtual Environment

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Wright ◽  
Greg Madey
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Access Control ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Collaborative Virtual Environments ◽  
Collaborative Virtual Environment ◽  
Discretionary Access Control ◽  
Limited Access ◽  
Access Controls ◽  
Restrict Movement

As collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) are more widely used, participant access to CVE objects and information becomes a significant concern. In virtual reality games, storefronts, classrooms, and laboratories, for example, the need to control access to spaces and objects is integral to the security of activities taking place there. However, limited access controls are typically available in CVEs. Often, such controls are course-grained, only protecting against movements by unauthorized participants into specific areas. In answer to this deficiency, we offer a discretionary access control (DAC) system based on traditional concepts of users and groups, and tailored to the needs of a CVE. Our system, called WonderDAC, includes the ability to restrict movement into areas, as well as control interactions with objects. A basic WonderDAC prototype has been implemented within the Project Wonderland CVE.

scholarly journals Distance Compression in the HTC Vive Pro: A Quick Revisitation of Resolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Buck ◽  
Richard Paris ◽  
Bobby Bodenheimer
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Distance Perception ◽  
Spatial Perception ◽  
Target Object ◽  
Extensive Study ◽  
Immersive Virtual Environments ◽  
Two Systems

Spatial perception in immersive virtual environments, particularly regarding distance perception, is a well-studied topic in virtual reality literature. Distance compression, or the underestimation of distances, is and has been historically prevalent in all virtual reality systems. The problem of distance compression still remains open, but recent advancements have shown that as systems have developed, the level of distance compression has decreased. Here, we add evidence to this trend by beginning the assessment of distance compression in the HTC Vive Pro. To our knowledge, there are no archival results that report any findings about distance compression in this system. Using a familiar paradigm for studying distance compression in virtual reality hardware, we asked users to blind walk to a target object placed in a virtual environment and assessed their judgments based on those distances. We find that distance compression in the HTC Vive Pro mirrors that of the HTC Vive. Our results are not particularly surprising, considering the nature of the differences between the two systems, but they lend credence to the finding that resolution does not affect distance compression. More extensive study should be performed to reinforce these results.

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