Design and Application of a Novel Virtual Reality Navigational Technology (VRNChair)
This paper presents a novel virtual reality navigation (VRN) input device, called the VRNChair, offering an intuitive and natural way to interact with virtual reality (VR) environments. Traditionally, VR navigation tests are performed using stationary input devices such as keyboards or joysticks. Ho...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2014-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Experimental Neuroscience |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.4137/JEN.S13448 |
| _version_ | 1818526622349787136 |
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| author | Ahmad Byagowi Danyal Mohaddes Zahra Moussavi |
| author_facet | Ahmad Byagowi Danyal Mohaddes Zahra Moussavi |
| author_sort | Ahmad Byagowi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper presents a novel virtual reality navigation (VRN) input device, called the VRNChair, offering an intuitive and natural way to interact with virtual reality (VR) environments. Traditionally, VR navigation tests are performed using stationary input devices such as keyboards or joysticks. However, in case of immersive VR environment experiments, such as our recent VRN assessment, the user may feel kinetosis (motion sickness) as a result of the disagreement between vestibular response and the optical flow. In addition, experience in using a joystick or any of the existing computer input devices may cause a bias in the accuracy of participant performance in VR environment experiments. Therefore, we have designed a VR navigational environment that is operated using a wheelchair (VRNChair). The VRNChair translates the movement of a manual wheelchair to feed any VR environment. We evaluated the VRNChair by testing on 34 young individuals in two groups performing the same navigational task with either the VRNChair or a joystick; also one older individual (55 years) performed the same experiment with both a joystick and the VRNChair. The results indicate that the VRNChair does not change the accuracy of the performance; thus removing the plausible bias of having experience using a joystick. More importantly, it significantly reduces the effect of kinetosis. While we developed VRNChair for our spatial cognition study, its application can be in many other studies involving neuroscience, neurorehabilitation, physiotherapy, and/or simply the gaming industry. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T06:25:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-04f9d2f97c4749abb5dfa32113245789 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1179-0695 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T06:25:31Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Experimental Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-04f9d2f97c4749abb5dfa321132457892022-12-22T01:17:41ZengSAGE PublishingJournal of Experimental Neuroscience1179-06952014-01-01810.4137/JEN.S13448Design and Application of a Novel Virtual Reality Navigational Technology (VRNChair)Ahmad Byagowi0Danyal Mohaddes1Zahra Moussavi2Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.Department of Psychiatry, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.This paper presents a novel virtual reality navigation (VRN) input device, called the VRNChair, offering an intuitive and natural way to interact with virtual reality (VR) environments. Traditionally, VR navigation tests are performed using stationary input devices such as keyboards or joysticks. However, in case of immersive VR environment experiments, such as our recent VRN assessment, the user may feel kinetosis (motion sickness) as a result of the disagreement between vestibular response and the optical flow. In addition, experience in using a joystick or any of the existing computer input devices may cause a bias in the accuracy of participant performance in VR environment experiments. Therefore, we have designed a VR navigational environment that is operated using a wheelchair (VRNChair). The VRNChair translates the movement of a manual wheelchair to feed any VR environment. We evaluated the VRNChair by testing on 34 young individuals in two groups performing the same navigational task with either the VRNChair or a joystick; also one older individual (55 years) performed the same experiment with both a joystick and the VRNChair. The results indicate that the VRNChair does not change the accuracy of the performance; thus removing the plausible bias of having experience using a joystick. More importantly, it significantly reduces the effect of kinetosis. While we developed VRNChair for our spatial cognition study, its application can be in many other studies involving neuroscience, neurorehabilitation, physiotherapy, and/or simply the gaming industry.https://doi.org/10.4137/JEN.S13448 |
| spellingShingle | Ahmad Byagowi Danyal Mohaddes Zahra Moussavi Design and Application of a Novel Virtual Reality Navigational Technology (VRNChair) Journal of Experimental Neuroscience |
| title | Design and Application of a Novel Virtual Reality Navigational Technology (VRNChair) |
| title_full | Design and Application of a Novel Virtual Reality Navigational Technology (VRNChair) |
| title_fullStr | Design and Application of a Novel Virtual Reality Navigational Technology (VRNChair) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Design and Application of a Novel Virtual Reality Navigational Technology (VRNChair) |
| title_short | Design and Application of a Novel Virtual Reality Navigational Technology (VRNChair) |
| title_sort | design and application of a novel virtual reality navigational technology vrnchair |
| url | https://doi.org/10.4137/JEN.S13448 |
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