James F. Knight

Serious gaming technology in major incident triage training: A pragmatic controlled trial ☆

OBJECTIVE By exploiting video games technology, serious games strive to deliver affordable, accessible and usable interactive virtual worlds, supporting applications in training, education, marketing and design. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of such a serious game in the teaching of major incident triage by comparing it with traditional training methods. DESIGN Pragmatic controlled trial. METHOD During Major Incident Medical Management and Support Courses, 91 learners were randomly distributed into one of two training groups: 44 participants practiced triage sieve protocol using a card-sort exercise, whilst the remaining 47 participants used a serious game. Following the training sessions, each participant undertook an evaluation exercise, whereby they were required to triage eight casualties in a simulated live exercise. Performance was assessed in terms of tagging accuracy (assigning the correct triage tag to the casualty), step accuracy (following correct procedure) and time taken to triage all casualties. Additionally, the usability of both the card-sort exercise and video game were measured using a questionnaire. RESULTS Tagging accuracy by participants who underwent the serious game training was significantly higher than those who undertook the card-sort exercise [Chi2=13.126, p=0.02]. Step accuracy was also higher in the serious game group but only for the numbers of participants that followed correct procedure when triaging all eight casualties [Chi2=5.45, p=0.0196]. There was no significant difference in time to triage all casualties (card-sort=435+/-74 s vs video game=456+/-62 s, p=0.155). CONCLUSION Serious game technologies offer the potential to enhance learning and improve subsequent performance when compared to traditional educational methods.

Human factors and qualitative pedagogical evaluation of a mobile augmented reality system for science education used by learners with physical disabilities

Technology-enhanced learning, employing novel forms of content representation and education service delivery by enhancing the visual perception of the real environment of the user, is favoured by proponents of educational inclusion for learners with physical disabilities. Such an augmented reality computer-mediated learning system has been developed as part of an EU funded research project, namely the CONNECT project. The CONNECT project brings together schools and science centres, and produces novel information and communication technologies based on augmented reality (AR) and web-based streaming and communication, in order to support learning in a variety of settings. The CONNECT AR interactive learning environment can assist users to better contextualize and reinforce their learning in school and in other settings where people learn (i.e. science centres and home). The CONNECT concept and associated technologies encourage users to visit science centres and perform experiments that are not possible in school. They can also build on these experiences back at school and at home with visual augmentations that they are communicated through web-based streaming technology. This paper particularly focuses on a user-centred evaluation approach of human factors and pedagogical aspects of the CONNECT system, as applied to a special needs user group. The main focus of the paper is on highlighting the human factors issues and challenges, in terms of wearability and technology acceptance, while elaborating on some qualitative aspects of the pedagogical effectiveness of the instructional medium that AR technology offers for this group of learners.

The comfort assessment of wearable computers

This paper presents a tool to measure the comfort of wearable computers. The comfort rating scales (CRS) measure wearable comfort across 6 dimensions. These dimensions are Emotion, Attachment, Harm, Perceived change, Movement and Anxiety. This paper also presents two studies in which the CRS have been used to assess the comfort of two types of wearable technology currently being developed at the University of Birmingham, these are the SensVest and the /spl chi//sup 3/. The results of the studies show that the CRS can be used to aid designers and manufacturers focus on what modifications are needed to wearable computer design to make them more comfortable. They also show that assessments of wearable computer comfort must be made in situations and environments to which the computer will ultimately be introduced.

Ergonomics of wearable computers

Wearable computers represent a new and exciting area for technology development, with a host of issues relating to display, power and processing still to be resolved. Wearable computers also present a new challenge to the field of ergonomics; not only is the technology distinct, but the manner in which the technology is to be used and the relationship between user and computer have changed in a dramatic fashion. In this paper, we concentrate on some traditional ergonomics concerns and examine how these issues can be addressed in the light of wearable computers.

Uses of accelerometer data collected from a wearable system

This paper presents work, assessing the use of accelerometers in wearable systems for a number of applications. It discusses and demonstrates how body mounted accelerometers can be used in context aware computing systems and for measuring aspects of human performance, which may be used for teaching and demonstrating skill acquisition, coaching sporting activities, sports and human movement research, and teaching subjects such as physics and physical education. Analysis is restricted to considerations as to how raw data can be used, and how simple calculations of quantities of data in the time domain, can be used. The limitations of the use of such data are discussed.

A Tool to Assess the Comfort of Wearable Computers

Wearable computer comfort can be affected by numerous factors, making its assessment based on one value with one scale inappropriate. This paper presents a tool that measures wearable comfort across six dimensions: emotion, attachment, harm, perceived change, movement, and anxiety. The dimensions for these comfort rating scales were specifically developed for wearable equipment assessment by applying multidimensional scaling to a comfort term association matrix developed using the results of groupings of wearable computer comfort terms. Testing the scales on four different types of wearable computer showed that the scales can be used to highlight differences in comfort between different types of technology for different aspects of comfort. An intraclass correlation of .872 suggested that the scales were used with a high level of reliability. A second study showed that modifications made to a wearable computer resulted in improvements in comfort, although they were not significant (p > .05). A potential application for this research is as an aid to designers and researchers for assessing the wearability, in terms of comfort, of wearable computer devices and to determine the effectiveness of any modifications made to the design of a wearable device.

Assessing the Wearability of Wearable Computers

In terms of mounting a computer on the body, the computers weight, size, shape, placement and method of attachment can elicit a number of effects. Inappropriate design may mean that the wearer is unable to perform specific tasks or achieve goals. Excessive stress on the body may result in perceptions of discomfort, which may in turn affect task performance, but ultimately raises issues of health and safety. This paper proposes a methodology for assessing the affects of wearing a computer in terms of physiological energy expenditure, the biomechanical effects due to changes in movement patterns, posture and perceptions of localised pain and discomfort due to musculoskeletal loading, and perceptions of well- being through comfort assessment. From ratings of these effects the paper proposes 5 levels to determine the wearability of a computer.

Effect of head-mounted displays on posture.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to determine if a wearable system based on a head-mounted display (HMD) causes users to alter their head position and adopt postures that place greater stress on the musculoskeletal system. Background: HMDs are common output devices used with wearable computers. HMDs provide the wearer with visual information by projecting computer-generated virtual images in front of the eyes. Deviations of neck posture from a neutral upright position increase the stresses on the musculoskeletal system of the head and neck. Method: Seven paramedics simulated the treatment of a patient under a normal condition and when using an HMD wearable computer system. During the simulations a posture analysis was performed using the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment method. Results: The postures adopted when wearing an HMD, as compared with a normal condition, scored significantly higher for the neck (z = 2.463, p < .05) and for overall body posture (left side of the body: z = 2.447, p < .05; right side of the body: z = 2.895, p < .05). Conclusion: Wearing an HMD can force the wearers to modify their neck posture. As such, the musculoskeletal system of the head and neck may be placed under increased levels of stress. Application: Potential users should be made aware that HMDs could dictate modifications in neck posture, which may have detrimental effects and may compound the weight effect of the HMD.

Defining and evaluating context for wearable computing

Abstract Defining ‘context’ has proved to be a non-trivial problem for research in context-awareness. In this paper we address two questions: what features of activity are required to define context? and does the use of context-awareness measurably improve user performance? The first question was addressed by a study of everyday activities, using a Photo Diary method to arrive at a set of Context Identifiers. We feel that it is important to discover what features of activity are needed in order to describe context. Two user trials were carried out to address the second question. We conclude that the use of context improves user task proficiency.

Preliminary Investigations into the Use of Wearable Computers

In this paper, we investigate human factors which could have a bearing on the use of wearable computers. The first study examines performance on a reaction time task using a head-mounted display in comparison with performance on a sVGA visual display unit. While the number of missed targets was not significantly different, there were significant differences in reaction time to displays. The second study shows performance time of participants using a wearable computer to be superior to those using paper-based manual and recording, but there is a trend for more errors to be made when using the wearable computer.