Evaluating System Usability, Workload Suitability, and User Experience of Game-Based Virtual Reality in Spaceflight Education and Training

Game-based instruction and immersive virtual reality are enhanced pedagogical methods beneficial in training environments involving complex disciplines, ranging from medical applications to construction engineering technology. This study investigated the use of game-based virtual reality (GBVR) when applied to the complex discipline of spaceflight education and training. As modern society places increasing demand on space-based amenities, the need for proficient satellite operators will also increase, requiring more accessible and more advanced training options. Spaceflight training scenarios, immersed in the GBVR environment, were developed and deployed to university student participants. Multiple validated scales were used to measure the GBVR system regarding three main attributes. System usability ranked above average on the System Usability Scale (SUS), user experience ranked above average on the Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale (GUESS-18), and workload ranked within 1.5% of the accepted mean value of the NASA Task Load Index (TLX). These results revealed positive feasibility and usability of GBVR applications when correctly deployed in a learning environment

Virtual Reality Prototype of a Linear Accelerator Simulator for Oncological Radiotherapy Training

Learning to operate medical equipment is one of the essential skills for providing efficient treatment to patients. One of the current problems faced by many medical institutions is the lack or shortage of specialized infrastructure for medical practitioners to conduct hands-on training. Medical equipment is mostly used for patients, limiting training time drastically. Virtual simulation can help alleviate this problem by providing the virtual embodiment of the medical facility in an affordable manner. This paper reports the current results of an ongoing project aimed at providing virtual reality-based technical training on various medical equipment to radiophysicist trainees. In particular, we introduce a virtual reality (VR) prototype of a linear accelerator simulator for oncological radiotherapy training. The paper discusses the main challenges and features of the VR prototype, including the system design and implementation. A key factor for trainees’ access and usability is the user interface, particularly tailored in our prototype to provide a powerful and versatile yet friendly user interaction

Influence of Haptic Communication on a Shared Manual Task in a Collaborative Virtual Environment

International audienceWith the advent of new haptic feedback devices, researchers are giving serious consideration to the incorporation of haptic communication in collaborative virtual environments. For instance, haptic interactions based tools can be used for medical and related education whereby students can train in minimal invasive surgery using virtual reality before approaching human subjects. To design virtual environments that support haptic communication, a deeper understanding of humans' haptic interactions is required. In this paper, human's haptic collaboration is investigated. A collaborative virtual environment was designed to support performing a shared manual task. To evaluate this system, 60 medical students participated to an experimental study. Participants were asked to perform in dyads a needle insertion task after a training period. Results show that compared to conventional training methods, a visual-haptic training improves user's collaborative performance. In addition, we found that haptic interaction influences the partners' verbal communication when sharing haptic information. This indicates that the haptic communication training changes the nature of the users' mental representations. Finally, we found that haptic interactions increased the sense of copresence in the virtual environment: haptic communication facilitates users' collaboration in a shared manual task within a shared virtual environment. Design implications for including haptic communication in virtual environments are outlined

Evaluating System Usability, Workload Suitability, and User Experience of Game-Based Virtual Reality in Spaceflight Education and Training

Game-based instruction and immersive virtual reality are enhanced pedagogical methods beneficial in training environments involving complex disciplines, ranging from medical applications to construction engineering technology. This study investigated the use of game-based virtual reality (GBVR) when applied to the complex field of spaceflight education and training. As modern society places increasing demand on space-based amenities, the need for proficient satellite operators will also increase, requiring more accessible and advanced training options. Satellite ground control training scenarios, immersed in the GBVR environment, were developed and deployed to university student participants. Multiple validated scales were employed to measure the GBVR system regarding three main attributes: system usability, workload suitability, and user experience. Results revealed that the GBVR system usability scores ranked above average on the System Usability Scale (SUS). Secondly, the workload suitability ranked within the accepted mean value range of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Task Load Index (TLX). And lastly, the user experience scores were similar to popular video game scores on the Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale (GUESS-18). Even with a small sample size (n = 10), the findings indicate that GBVR is a feasible tool when applied to a complex discipline such as spaceflight education and training

Immersive virtual reality and antigravity treadmill training for gait rehabilitation in Parkinson’s disease: A pilot and feasibility study

Introduction. Treadmill training is considered an effective intervention to improve gait ability in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). In parallel, virtual reality shows promising intervention with several applications in the inpatient medical setting. Aim. To evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of mechanical gait assistance combined with immersive virtual reality in patients with PD. Patients and methods. This pilot and feasibility study followed a pre-post study design. The intervention consisted of 12 sessions of 30 minutes, distributed regularly over four consecutive weeks. Participants walked on a treadmill with a body- weight support system set at approximately 20% of body weight and equipped with a virtual reality helmet controlled by a two-handed joystick. Feasibility and intervention outcomes were collected at baseline and after four weeks of intervention. Results. Twelve participants of 60 patients were finally enrolled. Nine of them (75%) completed the treatment intervention with an adherence rate of 97%. Two participants left the study, one of them due to sickness associated with virtual reality and another because of a lack of motivation. There were significant differences associated with small-medium effect sizes when comparing the pre and post values for walk distance, walk speed, balance, and quality of life. Conclusions. The present study provided preliminary evidence supporting the feasibility of the combination of antigravity treadmill and immersive virtual reality system for the rehabilitation of patients with PD

Live delivery of neurosurgical operating theater experience in virtual reality

A system for assisting in microneurosurgical training and for delivering interactive mixed reality surgical experience live was developed and experimented in hospital premises. An interactive experience from the neurosurgical operating theater was presented together with associated medical content on virtual reality eyewear of remote users. Details of the stereoscopic 360-degree capture, surgery imaging equipment, signal delivery, and display systems are presented, and the presence experience and the visual quality questionnaire results are discussed. The users reported positive scores on the questionnaire on topics related to the user experience achieved in the trial.Peer reviewe

Extended Reality in the Operating Room: Robot-Assisted Orthopedics Surgery with Live and Interactive Streaming for Medical Students

Cursos e Congresos, C-155[Abstract] Traditionally, medical education comprises both theoretical learning in classrooms and clinical training in hospitals where students can gain clinical experience. This is mostly done on face-to-face teaching models, focused on the educational philosophy of “see one, do one, teach one”, was the standard teaching methodology in medical education. Medical education is transforming thanks to medical schools adopting innovations to new clinicians, such as immersive prepare techniques (extended reality): virtual reality, augmented reality and virtual reality. Immersive learning technologies, such as extended reality, can provide an engaging and interactive platform to generate a stimulating learning environment and with the recent development and increased accessibility of immersive technologies, educators have the potential to make simulation-based training more effective. By using holographic devices, such as Microsoft HoloLens 2®, and 5G wireless communicationswe intent to explore the innovative experience of a robot-assisted orthopaedic surgery, where the procedures were transmitted live stream to Pregraduate Medical Students using the Microsoft Remote Assist®. In addition, students had the opportunity to interact directly from a classroom to the operating room, asking to the surgeon about the procedures performed during surgery and get involved in the surgery, even remotely. At the end, students completed a questionnaire to evaluate the experience and the preliminary results made possible to assess the effectiveness of this experience and identify areas for improvement for future surgery transmission, revolutionizing the teaching and practice of surgeryCITIC is funded by the Xunta de Galicia through the collaboration agreement between the Consellería de Cultura, Educación, Formación Profesional e Universidades and the Galician universities for the reinforcement of the research centres of the Galician University System (CIGUS

Enhancing virtual environment-based surgical teamwork training with non-verbal communication

Virtual reality simulations for training surgical skills are increasingly used in medical education and have been shown to improve patient outcome. While advances in hardware and simulation techniques have resulted in many commercial applications for training technical skills, most of these simulators are extremely expensive and do not consider non-technical skills like teamwork and communication. This is a major drawback since recent research suggests that a large percentage of mistakes in clinical settings are due to communication problems. In addition, training teamwork can also improve the efficiency of a surgical team and as such reduce costs and workload. We present an inexpensive camera-based system for capturing aspects of non-verbal communication of users participating in virtual environment-based teamwork simulations. This data can be used for the enhancement of virtual-environment-based simulations to increase the realism and effectiveness of team communication