PCbased Telerehabilitation System with Force Feedback

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476 Midterm Results
Midterm average 75.6
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Human Factors in VR
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept.
3

System architecture
4


Human factors in VR
(Stanney et al., 1998)
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Human factors in VR
Will the user get sick in VR?
How should VR technology be improved to better
meet the users needs?
?
Which tasks are most suitable for users in
VR?
How much feedback from VR can the user process?
Which user characteristics will influence VR
performance?
Will the user perceive system limitations?
Will there be negative societal impact from
users misuse of the technology?
What kind of designs will enhance users
performance in VR?
(Stanney et al., 1998)
6

• Human factors vocabulary
• HF study series of experiments in very
  rigorous conditions aimed at the user (can be
  controlled or case study)
• Experimental protocol establishes a structured
  sequence of experiments that all participants
  need to perform
• Trial a single instance of the experiment
• Session - a sequence of repeated trials
• Rest period time between sessions
• Experimental database files that store
  experimental data
• Institutional Review Board (IRB) watchdog
  office regulating HF experiments
• Principal Investigator (PI) person conducting
  the HF study. Needs to be certified by the IRB

7

• H. F. vocabulary - continued
• Subject - a participant in a HF study (male or
  female, age, volunteer or paid, right handed or
  left handed, normal or disabled, etc)
• Experimental group subjects on which the
  experiments are done
• Control group a number of subjects used for
  comparison with the experimental group
• Controlled study a study that uses both an
  experimental and control group
• Case study (also called pilot study) smaller
  study with no control group.
• Consent form needs to be signed by all
  participants into the study
• Baseline test measurement of subjects
  abilities before trial

8


Human factors in VR
Health and Safety
Societal Implications
(Stanney et al., 1998)
9

The stages of human factors studies
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Determine focus
Develop experim. protocol
The stages of human factors studies
Recruit subjects
Conduct study
Analyze data
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• Human factors focus
• What is the problem? (ex. People get headaches)
• Determines the hypothesis (ex. Faster graphics
  is better)
• Establishes type of study (usability,
  sociological, etc.)
• Objective evaluation, subjective evaluation or
  both?

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Determine focus
Develop experimental protocol
The stages of human factors studies
Recruit subjects
Conduct study
Analyze data
13

• Experimental protocol
• What tasks are done during one trial?
• How many trials are repeated per session?
• How many sessions per day, and how many days for
  the study?
• How many subjects in experimental and control
  group?
• What pre and post-trial measurements are done?
• What variables are stored in the database?
• What questions on the subjective evaluation form?

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Determine focus
Develop experim. protocol
The stages of human factors studies
Recruit subjects
Conduct study
Analyze data
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• Subject recruitment
• Sufficient number of subjects need to be
  enlisted in the study to have statistical
  significance
• Place advertisements, send targeted emails, web
  posting, go to support/focus groups, friends,
  etc.
• Subjects are screened for unsuitability to
  study
• Subjects sign consent form
• Subjects are assigned a code to protect their
  identity
• Subjects sign release for use of data in
  research,
• Subjects may get exposure to technology

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Determine focus
Develop experim. protocol
The stages of human factors studies
Recruit subjects
Conduct study
Analyze data
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Determine focus
Develop experim. protocol
The stages of human factors studies
Recruit subjects
Conduct study
Analyze data
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• Data Collection
• VR can sample much larger quantity of data and
  at higher temporal density than classical
  paper-and-pencil methods
• Data recorded online can be played back during
  task debriefing and researchers do not have to be
  co-located with the subjects (remote
  measurements)
• Measurements need to be sensitive (to
  distinguish between novice and expert users),
  reliable (repeatable and consistent) and valid
  (truthful)
• Latencies and sensor noise adversely affect
  these requirements.

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• Data Analysis
• Experiments store different variables, depending
  on the type of test
• task completion time time needed to finish the
  task (can use system time, sequence of actions,
  or stopwatch)
• task error rate number or percentage of errors
  done during a trial
• task learning a decrease in error rate, or
  completion time over a series of trials
• Analysis of Variation (ANOVA) statistical
  package used to analyze data and determine if
  statistical difference exists between trials or
  conditions.

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Data analysis - continued
Learning results in less errors and more uniform
performance among subjects
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Data analysis - continued
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Data analysis - continued

• Task learning time and error rates are applicable
  to VR in general
• Performance measures which are modality specific
  for example for force feedback - Average
  contact force the forcefulness of the
  interaction with a virtual object

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Data analysis - continued

• Another modality-specific performance measure is
  the cumulative contact force. Higher cumulative
  forces/torques indicate higher subjects muscle
  exertion
• This can lead to muscle fatigue of haptic
  interface premature wear. s which are modality
  specific for example for force feedback -
  Average contact force the forcefulness of the
  interaction with a virtual object
• There are also task-specific performance
  measures, such as those associated with cognitive
  tasks (heart rate, muscle tone, etc.)

Cumulative force
where ?t is the sampling interval
N ?i1 fi ?t
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Usability Engineering

• A subclass of human factors research to
  determine the ease (or difficulty) of use of a
  given product
• It differs from general-purpose VR human factors
  studies which are more theoretical in nature
• Usability studies are product-oriented and part
  of the product development cycle.
• There are no clear standards, because this is an
  are of active research.

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Usability Engineering

• The methodology consists of four stages

User task analysis
Expert guidelines- based evaluation
Formative Usability evaluation
Summative evaluation
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Sea Dragon military command and control
application
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Usability Engineering

• The first stage define the task and list users
  actions and system resources needed to do it
• Identifies the interrelationships (dependencies
  and order sequences) and user information flow
  during the task
• Poor task analysis is a frequent cause of bad
  product design.
• For Dragon, the task is 3-D navigation and
  object (symbol) selection and manipulation.
• it differs from classical 2-D maps and symbols.

User task analysis
Expert guidelines- based evaluation
Formative Usability evaluation
Summative evaluation
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Usability Engineering

• The second stage (sometimes called heuristic
  evaluation) aims at identifying potential
  usability problems early in the design cycle.
• A pencil-and-paper comparison of users actions
  done by experts, first alone, and then as a group
  (to determine consensus)
• For Dragon, ease of navigation was identified as
  a critical issue experts identified problems
  with the system responsiveness, when using a
  flight stick (wand with buttons) and performing
  exocentric navigation (the user was outside of
  the environment, looking in).

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• The third stage is an iterative process where
  representative users are asked to perform the
  task
• During task performance variour variables are
  measured, such as task completion time and error
  rates. These are used to do product re-design and
  the process is repeated
• Dragon formative evaluation had two stages.
  During the first stage the best interface was
  selected between three candidates (PinchGlove,
  voice recognition and wand). Voice recognition
  was ineffective, and PinchGlove produced time
  delays when transferring to another user. Thus
  wand was selected.

Usability Engineering
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Usability Engineering

• The second stage of Dragon formative evaluation
  used a large number of subjects that had to
  navigate, while errors were recorded.
• A large effort was made in mapping the wand
  button to functions. Pan and zoom were mapped to
  the wand trigger, pitch and heading to the left
  button, while exocentric rotate and zoom were
  mapped to the right button

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Usability Engineering

• The last stage is Summative evaluation which is
  done at the end of product development cycle. It
  is done to statistically compare the new product
  with other (competing) products to determine
  which is better. The selection among several
  candidates is done based on field trials and
  expert reviews.
• The summative evaluation of Dragon involved the
  study of four parameters navigation metaphor
  (egocentric or exocentric), gesture mapping (rate
  or position control of camera), display device
  (workbench, desktop, wall or CAVE) and graphics
  mode (stereo or mono)

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Usability Engineering

• The summative evaluation of Dragon involved
  thirty two subjects
• divided in groups of four. Each group was
  assigned a different
• combination of conditions.

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Usability Engineering

• Results showed that users
• performed fastest on a desktop monitor
• were slowest on the workbench.
• Egocentric navigation was fastest in monoscopic
  graphics
• Exocentric navigation was fastest in stereo
  graphics.
• Rate control was fastest in monoscopic graphics
• Position was fastest for stereo graphics.

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Testbed Evaluation of Universal VR Tasks

• Testbeds are a way to deal with evaluation
  complexities.
• They are composed of a small number of
  universal tasks such
• as travel in a virtual environment, object
  selection and object
• manipulation
• Provide a structured way to model subject
  performance, although
• the evaluation is more expensive to do.
• Testbeds make possible to predict subjects
  performance in
• applications that include the tasks, sub-tasks
  and interaction
• techniques they use.

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Testbed Evaluation of Universal VR Tasks -
continued

• Testbed evaluation of navigation tasks
  obstacles (trees and fences)
• and targets (flags) can be randomly placed.
• There were 38 subjects divided in 7 groups, each
  using a different
• Navigation technique (steering based,
  manipulation-based and target
• specification techniques)

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Testbed Evaluation of Universal VR Tasks -
continued

• Steering-based Pointing, gaze tracking or torso
  tracking
• Manipulation-based HOMER or Go-Go In go-go the
  subject
• stretches his hand into the virtual world, grasps
  an object and then
• pulls the virtual camera forward
• Target-specification ray casting or dragging.
• Fastest gaze-directed (but produced eye strain
  and nausea)

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Testbed Evaluation of Universal VR Tasks -
continued

• Testbeds used for object selection and placement
  tasks
• Subjects had to select a highlighted cube and
  place it in a target
• area (between the two gray cubes)

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Testbed Evaluation of Universal VR Tasks -
continued

• There were 48 subjects divided among 9 groups.
  Object selection
• was done either by ray casting or occlusion.
  Scene was seen on HMD
• For each subject the distance to the object, the
  DOF used for box
• Manipulation (2 or 6) or ratio of object/target
  size (1.5x, 3.75x) varied.
• Distant objects were harder to select, Go-Go was
  slowest mode.

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Influence of System Responsiveness on User
Performance

• System responsiveness inverse proportional to
  the time between user input and the simulation
  response to that input.
• HF studies done at Rutgers in early 90s to
  determine influence of refresh rate (fps) and
  graphics mode (mono/stereo) on tracking task
  performance in VR
• Subjects were 48 male and 48 female (volunteer
  undergrad students), right handed. Task was the
  capture of a bouncing ball in the smallest amount
  of time
• Subjects were divided in sub-groups, each having
  a different refresh rate, and graphics mode
• Each subject performed 12 trials separated by 15
  seconds rest periods Ball appeared with random
  velocity direction and maintained a speed of 25
  cm/sec

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Influence of System Responsiveness on User
Performance
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Influence of System Responsiveness on User
Performance

• Ball capturing time was influence sharply by the
  graphics refresh rate, especially when the rate
  was below 14 fps
• The standard deviation grew with the decrease in
  fps, indicating less uniformity among the
  subjects in the experimental groups
• Stereo made a bog difference for low refresh
  rates, where task completion time was
  approximately 50 of the time taken to complete
  the task under monoscopic graphics
• the subjects had different strategies for
  grasping the ball, at low refresh rates, where
  the ball motion appeared saccadic, they grasped
  in a corner, keeping their arm stationary, while
  at high refresh rates they moved theirs hand
  ballisticly to capture it.

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Influence of System Responsiveness on User
Performance
Mean completion time (sec)
Frames per second (fps)
Effect of frame rate and graphics mode on task
completion time (Richard et al., 1995)
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Influence of System Responsiveness on User
Learning

• The frame refresh rate had a significan
  influence on the way subjects learned
• The group with highest task learning was that
  corresponding to monoscopic graphics displayed at
  1 fps.

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Influence of System Responsiveness on User
Learning

• The least learning was for the groups with high
  refresh rates (14 fps and 28 fps). Their curves
  were almost flat
• Stereo had a beneficial effect on learning
  (subjects were more familiar to the task it was
  presented more realistically to them).

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Influence of System Responsiveness on Object
Placement tasks

• Watson performed a test to determine the
  influence of system responsiveness and its
  variability (expresses as Standard Deviation of
  System Responsiveness) on object placement tasks.
• The task was to capture an object and place them
  on a pedestal, while receiving monoscopic
  graphics feedback
• System responsiveness was altered by changing
  the frame refresh rates to 17fps, 25fps and 33
  fps. For each frame rate, the SDSR was changed
  from 5.6, 22.2 and 44.4
• Results showed that subject performance
  (expressed as placement time and accuracy) was
  effected by both SR and SDSR.
• The variability in system responsiveness had the
  largest influence on placement tasks done at low
  refresh rates. The worst was placement done at 17
  fps, with 44.4 SDSR.
• When done at 33 fps and 5.6 SDSR accuracy
  improved 90.

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Influence of System Responsiveness on Object
Placement tasks
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Influence of Feedback Multi-modality

• HF studies done at University of Birmingham in
  late 90s to determine influence of force
  feedback mode on task completion time in VR
• Task was the manipulation of disks to construct
  the Tower of Hanoi.
• Four conditions non-immersive VR with 2-D
  mouse, immersive (HMD) with 3-D mouse, immersive
  with instrumented objects, and real objects
• Use of instrumented objects (disks with a
  tracker attached) to provide force feedback
  augmented VR
• Subjects were four male with six-months
  experience in VR each
• Each subject performed 10 trials for each
  condition, conditions were randomized.

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Influence of Feedback Multi-modality
Problem Stack three rings on another
pole Larger ring never on top of smaller one
Tower of Hanoi task
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Influence of Feedback Multi-modality
3-D manipulation task Tower of Hanoi
(Boud et al., 2000)
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Influence of Feedback Multi-modality
Tower of Hanoi performance
(Boud et al., 2000)
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Influence of sensorial redundancy and
substitution
Definition Sensorial substitution (or
transposition) occurs whenever information that
is usually in one sensorial domain is presented
to the brain through another sensory
system. Sensorial redundancy involves the use of
several (at least two) sensorial domains to
present the same information to the subject.
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Types of sensorial substitution
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Influence of sensorial redundancy and
substitution

• HF studies done at Rutgers in mid 90s to
  determine influence of force feedback mode on
  task performance in VR
• Task was the manipulation a deformable virtual
  ball on a prescribed path, in shortest time
• Ball needed to be deformed 10 of radius or
  less
• Subjects were male and female (volunteer
  undergrad students), right handed, and none had
  seen the system before
• Subjects were divided in sub-groups, each having
  a different force feedback modality and graphics
  mode
• Frame rate was maintained at 28 fps
• Each subject performed 12 trials separated by 15
  seconds rest periods

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Influence of sensorial redundancy and
substitution
3-D capturing and manipulation task setup
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Influence of sensorial redundancy and
substitution
Sensorial substitution
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Influence of sensorial redundancy and
substitution
RMI
Mean object deformation ()
RMII
3-D manipulation task
Force Feedback Modality
Effect of interface dynamic range on task
performance (Fabiani et al., 1996)
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Sensorial Illusion

• This happens during cross-modal enhancement
  when weak haptic feedback is supplemented by
  another modality. Example
• Bioccas study found that 30 of subjects
  reported feeling the weight and inertia of
  virtual objects when interacting with PinchGloves

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Sensorial Illusion

• Another form of sensorial illusion in sensorial
  conflict in which information from one sensorial
  channel contradicts that received by another
  sensorial channel.
• An extreme case of sensorial conflict is
  simulation sickness which will be discussed
  later.
• French researchers studied the boundary of
  illusion between conflicting visual and haptic
  feedback.

VC 7.1
59


Human factors in VR
Human Performance Efficiency
Societal Implications
(Stanney et al., 1998)
60

Effects of VR Simulations on users
The effects VR simulations have on users can be
classified as direct and indirect
Definitions Direct effects involve energy
transfer at the tissue level and are potentially
hazardous Indirect effects are neurological,
psychological, sociological,or cybersickness and
affect the user at a higher functional level.
61

Direct Effects of VR Simulations on Users

• Affect mainly the users visual system, but also
  the auditory, skin and musculoskeletal systems
• Effects on the skin and muscles are due to
  haptic feedback at too high a level.

Even the Queen got a Wii (at age 81)
62
But users and their surroundings get injured

• The intensity of the game playing can lead to
  injury. Statistics posted on http//www.wiihaveapr
  oblem.com/damage.php show 41 people, 25 TVs, 19
  lamps, 9 ceiling fans, 6 pets. etc

http//www.kctv5.com/health/14978010/detail.html
63

Direct Effects of VR Simulations on Users

• Effects on the visual system occur when the user
  is subjected to high-intensity lights directed at
  his eyes (like Lasers used in retinal displays
  (if they malfunction), or IR LEDs as part of eye
  tracking systems
• An absence state can be induced in a user
  subjected to pulsing lights at low frequency
  (1-10 Hz)
• Bright lights coupled with loud pulsing sounds
  can induce migraines (20 of women and 10 of men
  are prone to migraines.
• Direct effects on the auditory system are due to
  simulation noise that has too high a level (115
  dB after more than 15 minutes)

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Cyber sickness

• User safety concerns relate primarily to cyber
  sickness, but also to body harm when haptic
  feedback is provided
• Cyber sickness is a form of motion sickness
  present when users interact with virtual
  environments
• Cyber sickness has three forms
• Nausea and (in severe cases) vomiting
• Eye strain (Oculomotor disturbances)
• Disorientation, postural instability (ataxia)
  and vertigo.
• Flight simulators have an incidence of up to 60
  of users experiencing simulation sickness
  (military pilots elite group)
• Studies suggest regular VR users are affected
  more (up to 95)
• (Stanney and Hash, 1998)

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Cyber sickness Model

• Since many users are affected, it is important
  to study cyber sickness, in order to reduce its
  effects, and allow wide-spread use of VR
• Few studies exist. Based on these the following
  model was developed

Simulation sickness
Neural Conflict
Adaptation
Prior Experience
Human Body
Virtual Environment
Aftereffects
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The Cyber sickness model
Simulation sickness
Neural Conflict
Adaptation
Prior Experience
Human Body
Virtual Environment
After-effects
67

System characteristics influencing cyber
sickness

• When VR technology has problems, it can induce
  simulation sickness. Example
• Tracker errors that induce a miss-match between
  user motion and avatar motion in VR
• System lag that produces large time delays
  between user motion and simulation (graphics)
  response. Lag is in turn influenced by tracking
  sampling speed, computer power, communication
  speed, and software optimization.
• HMD image resolution and field of view. Poor
  resolution and small FOV are not acceptable.
  Large FOVs can also be problematic.

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Influence of users characteristics on cyber
sickness

• The user characteristics can play an important
  role in cyber sickness
• Age that induce a miss-match between user motion
  and avatar motion in VR
• Health status. Sick users, including those that
  take medication or drugs are more prone to cyber
  sickness.
• Pregnancy. Female users who are pregnant are
  more prone to simulation sickness.
• Susceptibility to motion sickness. Some people
  are more prone to motion sickness than others.
  Pilots are screened for such.

69

The Cyber sickness model
70

Influence of users degree of interactivity
on cyber sickness

• HF studies done at University of Central
  Florida (Stanney and Hash, 1998) to determine
  influence of user degree of control on cyber
  sickness in VR
• Task was 3-D navigation in a maze (shown below)

3-D navigation task (Stanney and Hash, 1988)
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Influence of users degree of interactivity
on cyber sickness

• There were three control conditions
• Passive control users were taken on a ride
  on a preprogrammed path, and had no input to the
  simulation
• Active control users navigated using a
  joystick with 6 DOF
• Combined active-passive control users
  navigated using the same joystick, but with some
  degrees of freedom disabled, based on
  task-specific motions (doors, windows,
  elevators)
• There were eight subjects in each experimental
  group (24 total, both male and female) They each
  performed the task for 30 minutes
• The virtual environment was displayed on a PC in
  stereo, so subjects wore stereo glasses.
• Results showed that active-passive control
  reduced significantly cyber sickness effects.
  Passive control did worse.

3-D navigation task (Stanney and Hash, 1988)
72

Influence of users degree of interactivity
on cyber sickness

• Active-passive control is better than active
  control, because unnecessary motions are
  eliminated, thus reducing the amount of neural
  conflicts. Both reduce adaptation time.
• Simulation sickness was self-reported by
  subjects using a Simulation Sickness
  Questionnaire (SSQ)

3-D navigation statistics (Stanney and Hash, 1988)
73

The Cyber sickness model
Simulation sickness
Neural Conflict
Adaptation
Prior Experience
Human Body
Virtual Environment
After-effects
74

Neural Conflict

• Occurs when simulation and body sensorial
  feedbacks conflict
• The conflict (sensorial rearrangements) can be
  of three types
• Type I two simultaneous conflicting signals (A
  and B) example Information from a moving
  platform does not coincide with the motion of
  waves seen on an HMD.
• Type II Signal A is present and B is not
  example looking at a roller coaster simulation,
  without a motion platform
• Type III Signal B is present and signal A is
  not flight simulation in fog (instrumented
  flight). Motion platform moves, but visual
  feedback is unchanged.
• Since more information from the simulation
  results in more conflict, it is logical that
  neural conflict induced cyber sickness grows with
  the duration of immersion in the VE.

75

Influence of exposure duration on cyber
sickness

• HF studies done at University of Central
  Florida (Kennedy et al., 2000) to determine
  influence of simulation duration on cyber
  sickness
• Task was flying a helicopter, and subjects were
  military pilots
• The data was divided according to duration in
• Simulation session of 1 hour or less
• 1 to 2 hours
• 2 to 3 hours
• Simulation session of over three hours
• It showed that there is a linear relationship
  between duration of simulation and the degree of
  simulation sickness Thus the duration of initial
  exposure should be limited, to minimize
  discomfort

76

Influence of simulation duration on cyber
sickness
Average Total Sickness Score
(Kennedy et al., 2000)
Flight Session Duration (in hours)
77

The Cyber sickness model
Simulation sickness
Neural Conflict
Adaptation
Prior Experience
Human Body
Virtual Environment
After-effects
78

Influence of repeated exposure on cyber
sickness

• HF studies done at University of Central
  Florida (Kennedy et al., 2000) to determine
  influence of user adaptation on cyber sickness
• Since prior neural images play such an important
  role in cyber sickness, can repeated exposure to
  VR desensitize the user?
• Study looked at military helicopter simulators,
  thus subjects were pilots, and task was prone to
  induce sickness (violent maneuvers).
• The study used a Total Simulation Score with
  a 35 as zero-point. Thus for military pilots 35
  incidence of simulator sickness is considered
  acceptable. For the general public it is not.
• Results showed a significant reduction in TSS
  after a few flights showing that the subject had
  adapted to the neural mismatch. While mismatches
  exist, there are considered as matches due to
  prior experience.

79

Influence of repeated exposure - results

• The study did not indicate how long the
  subsequent exposures should be, nor over what
  time interval they should take place. It is
  believed that no more than one week should
  separate simulation sessions.

Cyber sickness scores vs. number of successive
flights (Kennedy et al., 2000)
80

Adaptation
Definition Adaptation to sensory rearrangement
is a semi-permanent change of perception and/or
perceptual-motor coordination that serves to
reduce or eliminate a registered discrepancy
between, or within, sensory modalities, or the
errors in behavior induced by this discrepancy.
81

Adaptation
Hand-eye coordination adaptation a) before VR
exposure b) initial mapping through artificial
offset c) adapted grasping d) aftereffects.
From Groen and Werkhoven 1998.
82

The Cyber sickness model
Simulation sickness
Neural Conflict
Adaptation
Prior Experience
Human Body
Virtual Environment
Aftereffects
83

Aftereffects

• Induced through adaptation to neural conflicts.
• Occur after the simulation session ended and can
  last for hours or days
• While adaptation is good, aftereffects may be
  bad. Forms of aftereffects are
• Flashbacks
• Sensation of self motion
• Headache and head spinning
• Diminished (remapped) hand-eye coordination
• Vestibular disturbances
• These aftereffects lead Navy and Marines to
  institute grounding policies after simulator
  flights. Other bans may be necessary (example
  driving, biking, roof repair, operating
  machinery, etc.).

84

Guidelines for Proper VR Usage
Meant to minimize the onset and severity of
cybersickness. They are largely qualitative
85

Guidelines for Proper VR Usage
86


Human factors in VR
Human Performance Efficiency
Health and Safety
Societal Implications
(Stanney et al., 1998)
87

Social implications of VR

• Violence of VR games are a concern, as additive
  response could result. Violence may also induce
  desensitization to real-world violence. This may
  be another negative after-effect of VR.
• Another social impact may be increased
  individual isolation, through reduced societal
  direct interaction and involvement.
  Avatar-mediated interaction, while allowing
  sharing of virtual worlds may not be a substitute
  to direct human-human interaction.
• Synthetic and distance learning using VR may not
  adequately replace direct student-professor
  interaction. Reduction in education quality may
  result
• Reduction in health-care quality may also be
  present especially for mental health and
  at-home rehabilitation.

88

Social implications of VR
Online societies such as the Alphaworld
89

Second Life Online Society http//secondlife.c
om
People become members, then can build communities
or islands, buy at virtual stores and play games.
An online 3D virtual world imagined and created
by its Residents
90

Second Life Online Society
Socialize
Create content
Events/Games
91

Second Life Online Society
92
Mental rehabilitation VR systems

• One form of game-based mental training is the
  Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite
• It allows seniors to have fun while playing
  mind-challenging games, using a stylus and voice
  input
• Brain Age 2 has100 activities designed to help
  work your brain and increase blood flow to the
  prefrontal cortex.

93
Mental rehabilitation VR systems

• When starting a new game, you will take a series
  of tests that show how old your brain is (Brain
  Age).
• With daily training over weeks and months, you
  can improve your mental acuity and lower your
  Brain Age.
• Can compete against others

94
Online Cognitive Rehabilitation

• The Lumosity Co. (lumosity.com) allows
  subscription (10/month) to video games that
  train the attention, memory, cognitive control
  and processing speed with against-the-clock
  games.
• After 30 sessions subjects that played the games
  also improved in independent tests of memory.

95
The dangers of video games (general)

• Excessive game play can be fatal. In Korea, where
  30 of the population subscribes to online
  multiplayer games, one man died in 2005 after
  playing 50 hours (almost non-stop) StarCraft. 3
  Chinese died in 2007 after playing more than 50
  hours, and 2 died in 2005. EverQuest is a 3D
  online game played by more than 400,000 people
  Games can lead to isolation, and suicide. Hudson
  Wooley, an epileptic who was playing 12-hours per
  day, eventually committed suicide.