4 research outputs found

    The Megafobia V-armchair thrill-seeking experience for older audiences - An artistic intervention at Age UK Barnet

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    This demonstration session presents the artistic and experimental explorations of using VR technology and a motion simulator to allow older people to experience the thrill of roller coasters

    Archives of thrill: the V-Armchair experience

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    Technology for older people is typically concerned either with health care or accessibility of existing systems. In this paper we take a more ‘entertainment-oriented’ approach to developing experiences aimed at older users. We describe here the design, development and a user study of the V-Armchair, a virtual reality and motion platform based roller coaster experience. The V-Armchair constitutes a blueprint for the digital archiving of physical ride experiences through the simultaneous capture of 360 video, sound and motion. It gives access to thrill experiences to those who may not be able to go on real thrill rides, such as older riders, and it can be considered as a class of technology that could help to support ‘active aging’ as defined by the World Health Organisation. We discuss strategies for capturing and then ‘toning down’ motion experiences to make them accessible for older users. We present a study which explores the user experience of the V-Armchair with an older group (median age 63) using a DK2 headset, and a younger group (median age 25) using a CV1 headset, via thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and a modified version of the Game Experience Questionnaire, and discuss emergent themes such as the role of the presenter, reminiscence, presence and immersion

    The Teletalker – A Design Researcher’s Tool to Explore Intergenerational Online Video Connectivity in-the-Wild

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    Although a fair amount of research around older adults’ perception of digital technology exists, there is only a moderate amount of research investigating older people’s reactions and sense-making in real-world contexts with emerging digital tools. This paper reports on the constructivist research approach used by the author, which initiated co-production with participants to gather older and younger adults’ reactions towards digital video connectivity during a series of design research interventions. For this, the author had built a research tool, the Teletalker kiosks (TT), which connected two locations using digital live video to provide a ‘window into the other space’. Participants, if they wished, could activate the volume with a designed mechanism aimed at non-computer literate people, which was used in order to speak to each other. The three connections were between an older people’s charity day centre and the university, between two locations at the university, and between two-day centres in the U.K. The returns collected revealed overall positive reactions towards video connectivity by younger adults and mixed reactions by older adults. The design for the volume mechanism did not work as expected for both groups. The interventions also brought out opinions and conformity dynamics within groups of older adults and attitudes by younger audiences towards older people. More research is needed to understand these reactions and attitudes in comparable contexts
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