Stephen Sundarrao

VR4VR: vocational rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities in immersive virtual reality environments

This paper presents a virtual reality for vocational rehabilitation system (VR4VR) that is currently in development at the University of South Floridas Center for Assistive, Rehabilitation, and Robotics Technologies (CARRT). VR4VR utilizes virtual reality to assess and train individuals with severe cognitive and physical disabilities. Using virtual reality offers several advantages such as being inexpensive, safer and easily adjustable to different user needs through customization of environments, content and real time interventions. The system is composed of the following components: a virtual reality training area surrounded by an optical motion tracking system, a curved screen with two projectors, a server computer, a remote control interface on a tablet computer for job coaches, and a virtual assistive robot. This paper focuses on virtual reality training for underserved individuals with cognitive disabilities, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). We describe six transferrable skill modules and corresponding design considerations. Future work focuses on people with severe mobility impairment, such as spinal cord injury (SCI).

VR4VR: Towards vocational rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities in immersive virtual reality environments

In this paper, a virtual reality for vocational rehabilitation (VR4VR) system for individuals with disabilities is presented. VR4VR aims to enable job coaches to use immersive virtual environments to inexpensively and safely assess and train the job skills of individuals with disabilities. Several key system requirements and challenges are discussed, including the need for virtual “distractor” stimuli to observe user behavior in unexpected situations, the need to make the virtual experience and 3D user interfaces adapt to the specific disabilities of the user, and the challenges in maintaining senses of presence and copresence, especially in individuals with cognitive disabilities. In this work, the chosen population includes individuals with autism spectrum disorder, traumatic brain injury and severe mobility impairment. Using virtual reality enables safe immersion of potential employees in a range of scenarios they may encounter, long before they encounter them in a real job.

Driving evaluation of persons with disabilities using an advanced vehicle interface system

This paper presents a new approach to the driving assessment of persons with disabilities in which an advanced vehicle interface system is introduced. This system combines a six-degree-of-freedom force reflecting haptic device and a commercially available vehicle modification system. Innovative ergonomic tasks are presented to determine the appropriate position and orientation of the required driving input device. Further, model based computer assistance is incorporated by using assistance functions such as scaling and tremor filtering. Results, obtained from testing a subject with Muscular Dystrophy (MD), demonstrated that the quantitative ergonomic measurements obtained successfully determined the appropriate position and orientation of the modified steering wheel device.

Using Immersive Virtual Reality Serious Games for Vocational Rehabilitation of Individuals with Physical Disabilities

This paper presents a system for vocational training and assessment of individuals with severe physical disabilities using immersive virtual reality. The system was developed at the University of South Florida’s Center for Assistive, Rehabilitation, and Robotics Technologies (CARRT). A virtual and physical assistive robot was used for the remote-control skills training. After going through several iterations, the system was tested by a total of 15 participants along with professional job trainers. The results were encouraging in further exploration of virtual reality as a promising tool in vocational training of individuals with severe physical disabilities.