Rongkai Guo

Latency and avatars in virtual environments and the effects on gait for persons with mobility impairments

Latency and avatars in Virtual Environments have been extensively studied over the years. However, there has been minimal research conducted on the effects of latency and avatars for mobility impaired users. To address this, we have conducted a study involving both healthy and mobility impaired participants with the simple task of walking across a simulated room under various latency and avatar conditions. We investigated the impact of latency and avatars on perceived latency and gait parameters. The results suggest that mobility impaired persons react to latency and the presence of an avatar differently than healthy users.

Differences in presence between healthy users and users with multiple sclerosis

We are investigating how persons with mobility impairments due to multiple sclerosis (MS) experience the sense of presence in a Virtual Environment (VE). Since the mid 90s, virtual reality (VR) research has produced a rich knowledge of how design and interaction features of VEs affect presence. However, to our knowledge almost all of the previous research studies have been conducted only with healthy persons. Thus, it is not known how these factors affect the presence of mobility impaired persons, which could have implications for VR-based rehabilitation. To begin investigating this, we replicated a classic VR experiment that has been replicated many times before, but we ran the study with a different population: 10 persons with mobility impairments caused by MS and another 5 healthy persons of similar demographics (e.g., age) as our MS population. This paper compares how these two groups experience presence and discusses the differences we found in our study.

Mobility impaired users respond differently than healthy users in virtual environments

Virtual environments (VEs) have been shown to be beneficial in physical rehabilitation, increasing motivation and the range of exercises that can be safely performed. However, little is known about how disabilities may impact a users responses to a VE, which could affect rehabilitation motivation. Thus, the primary objective of this research is to understand how VEs affect users with mobility impairments (MI). Specifically, we investigate the influence of full body avatars that have canes. To begin investigating this, we designed a VE that included a range of multimodal feedback to induce a strong sense of presence and was novel to the participants. Using this VE, we conducted a study with two different populations: eight persons with MI and eight healthy persons as a control. The healthy participants were of similar demographics (e.g., age, weight, height, and previous VE experience) to the participants with MI who walked with a cane (i.e., on the basis of strict selection criteria to maintain homogeneity). This is one of the first studies to investigate how a VE can affect the gait of the users with MI, physiological response, presence, behavior, and the influence of avatars. Results of the study suggest generalizable guidelines for the design of VEs for users with MI. Copyright

Latency and avatars in Virtual Environments and the effects on gait for persons with mobility impairments

Latency and avatars in Virtual Environments have been extensively studied over the years. However, there has been minimal research conducted on the effects of latency and avatars for mobility impaired users. To address this, we have conducted a study involving both healthy and mobility impaired participants with the simple task of walking across a simulated room under various latency and avatar conditions. We investigated the impact of latency and avatars on perceived latency and gait parameters (i.e., walking patterns). The results suggest that mobility impaired persons react to latency and the presence of an avatar differently than healthy users.

Converting Sedentary Games to Exergames: A Case Study with a Car Racing Game

One of the major challenges in designing exercise games (exergames) is maintaining engagement and motivation over time. Previous research has shown that games can increase the motivation exercise. However, these games are typically developed with limited set of specific exercises in mind, which limits genre choices, and potentially long term motivation. To address this critical issue, we are interested in employing any exercise as an interface to common, existing, sedentary games, such as a car racing game. Specifically, in this paper, we aim to take initial steps toward this goal. As a proof of concept, we developed 2 exercised based interfaces for a car racing game - a game genre minimally used for exergames. We present the evaluation of our novel exercise interfaces to the racing game, and offer general guidelines for converting common classes of sedentary games to exergames.

Exercise-based interaction techniques for a virtual reality car racing game

Using Microsoft Kinect as a whole body motion tracking system and 3D user interface, we developed two exercise-based 3D interaction techniques for a car racing game - a genre of game traditionally unrelated to physical exercise. Interaction (i.e., control of car acceleration) is enabled through the use of two real exercises 1) a half crouching exercise, and 2) a crouching and rising exercise. In two within subjects user studies, with 27 participants in half crouching and another 30 participants in crouching and rising respectively, we compared exercises in-game to the same exercises without the game, focusing on the physiological and motivational impact of mapping exercises as interfaces to games.

3DUIdol - 6th annual 3DUI contest

The 6th annual IEEE 3DUI contest focuses on Virtual Music Instruments (VMIs), and on 3D user interfaces for playing them. The Contest is part of the IEEE 2015 3DUI Symposium held in Arles, France. The contest is open to anyone interested in 3D User Interfaces (3DUIs), from researchers to students, enthusiasts, and professionals. The purpose of the contest is to stimulate innovative and creative solutions to challenging 3DUI problems. Due to the recent explosion of affordable and portable 3D devices, this years contest will be judged live at 3DUI. The judgment will be done by selected 3DUI experts during on-site presentation during the conference. Therefore, contestants are required to bring their systems for live judging and for attendees to experience them.

Game cane: An assistive 3DUI for rehabilitation games

The objective of this research is to effectively design a cane interface for assistive and rehabilitative interactions in games. Current 3D interfaces for games are not usable for many populations with physical impairments and are often not adaptable to rehabilitation exercises (e.g., balance exercise, assistive device training). To address this, we present the design of a novel cane-based 3D interface for rehabilitation games. We report results from a user study, which offers insight into the future design and potential effectiveness of canes as rehabilitation game interfaces.