The effects of substitute multisensory feedback on task performance and the sense of presence in a virtual reality environment

Objective and subjective measures of performance in virtual reality environments increase as more sensory cues are delivered and as simulation fidelity increases. Some cues (colour or sound) are easier to present than others (object weight, vestibular cues) so that substitute cues can be used to enhance informational content in a simulation at the expense of simulation fidelity. This study evaluates how substituting cues in one modality by alternative cues in another modality affects subjective and objective performance measures in a highly immersive virtual reality environment. Participants performed a wheel change in a virtual reality (VR) environment. Auditory, haptic and visual cues, signalling critical events in the simulation, were manipulated in a factorial design. Subjective ratings were recorded via questionnaires. The time taken to complete the task was used as an objective performance measure. The results show that participants performed best and felt an increased sense of immersion and involvement, collectively referred to as 'presence', when substitute multimodal sensory feedback was provided. Significant main effects of audio and tactile cues on task performance and on participants' subjective ratings were found. A significant negative relationship was found between the objective (overall completion times) and subjective (ratings of presence) performance measures. We conclude that increasing informational content, even if it disrupts fidelity, enhances performance and user's overall experience. On this basis we advocate the use of substitute cues in VR environments as an efficient method to enhance performance and user experience

The Effects of Multisensory Cues on the Sense of Presence and Task Performance in a Virtual Reality Environment

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of visual, haptic and audio sensory cues on participant’s sense of presence and task performance in a highly immersive virtual environment. Participants were required to change a wheel of a (virtual) racing car in the 3D environment. Subjective ratings of presence and comfort were recorded using the Immersive Tendencies Questionnaire (ITQ), [WS98], the Presence Questionnaire (PQ) [WS98] and Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), [KLB*_93]. The time taken to complete the task was used as an objective performance measure. Auditory, haptic and visual cues signalling critical events in the simulation were manipulated in a factorial design. Participants wore 3D glasses for visual cues, headphones for audio feedback and vibration gloves for tactile feedback. Participants held a physical pneumatic tool. Events, such as the full extraction of a bolt were signalled by haptic (vibration frequency change), acoustic (change in tool sound) and visual (colour change of bolt) cues or combinations of cues. Data was collected in two blocks containing all eight sensory cue combinations: the task was once performed in a normal VR environment (control) and once (motion) in an environment where the position of the virtual environment was sinusoidally modulated by 2 cm in the depth plane at 0.5 Hz to simulate inaccurate participant tracking. All participants completed all 16 conditions in a pseudorandom sequence to control for order and learning effects. Subjective ratings for presence, discomfort and perceived cues effectiveness were recorded after each condition. Participants performed best when all cues were present. Significant main effects of audio and tactile cue presentation on task performance and also on participants' presence ratings were found. We also found a significant negative effect of environment motion on task performance and participants' discomfort ratings

Combinations of medicines in patients with polypharmacy aged 65-100 in primary care: Large variability in risks of adverse drug related and emergency hospital admissions.

BackgroundPolypharmacy can be a consequence of overprescribing that is prevalent in older adults with multimorbidity. Polypharmacy can cause adverse reactions and result in hospital admission. This study predicted risks of adverse drug reaction (ADR)-related and emergency hospital admissions by medicine classes.MethodsWe used electronic health record data from general practices of Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD GOLD) and Aurum. Older patients who received at least five medicines were included. Medicines were classified using the British National Formulary sections. Hospital admission cases were propensity-matched to controls by age, sex, and propensity for specific diseases. The matched data were used to develop and validate random forest (RF) models to predict the risk of ADR-related and emergency hospital admissions. Shapley Additive eXplanation (SHAP) values were calculated to explain the predictions.ResultsIn total, 89,235 cases with polypharmacy and hospitalised with an ADR-related admission were matched to 443,497 controls. There were over 112,000 different combinations of the 50 medicine classes most implicated in ADR-related hospital admission in the RF models, with the most important medicine classes being loop diuretics, domperidone and/or metoclopramide, medicines for iron-deficiency anaemias and for hypoplastic/haemolytic/renal anaemias, and sulfonamides and/or trimethoprim. The RF models strongly predicted risks of ADR-related and emergency hospital admission. The observed Odds Ratio in the highest RF decile was 7.16 (95% CI 6.65-7.72) in the validation dataset. The C-statistics for ADR-related hospital admissions were 0.58 for age and sex and 0.66 for RF probabilities.ConclusionsPolypharmacy involves a very large number of different combinations of medicines, with substantial differences in risks of ADR-related and emergency hospital admissions. Although the medicines may not be causally related to increased risks, RF model predictions may be useful in prioritising medication reviews. Simple tools based on few medicine classes may not be effective in identifying high risk patients

Perceptual assessment of environmental stability modulates postural sway

We actively maintain postural equilibrium in everyday life, and, although we are unaware of the underlying processing, there is increasing evidence for cortical involvement in this postural control. Converging evidence shows that we make appropriate use of \u2018postural anchors\u2019, for example static objects in the environment, to stabilise our posture. Visually evoked postural responses (VEPR) that are caused when we counteract the illusory perception of self-motion in space (vection) are modulated in the presence of postural anchors and therefore provide a convenient behavioural measure. The aim of this study is to evaluate the factors influencing visual appraisal of the suitability of postural anchors. We are specifically interested in the effect of perceived \u2018reality\u2019 in VR the expected \u2018stability\u2019 of visual anchors. To explore the effect of \u2018reality\u2019 we introduced an accommodation-vergence conflict. We show that VEPR are appropriately modulated only when virtual visual \u2018anchors\u2019 are rendered such that vergence and accommodation cues are consistent. In a second experiment we directly test whether cognitive assessment of the likely stability of real perceptual anchors (we contrast a \u2018teapot on a stand\u2019 and a \u2018helium balloon\u2019) affects VEPR. We show that the perceived positional stability of environmental anchors modulate postural responses. Our results confirm previous findings showing that postural sway is modulated by the configuration of the environment and further show that an assessment of the stability and reality of the environment plays an important role in this process. On this basis we propose design guidelines for VR systems, in particular we argue that accommodation-vergence conflicts should be minimised and that high quality motion tracking and rendering are essential for high fidelity VR.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Tuotteistettu tietoturvakartoitus pienille ja keskisuurille yrityksille

Insinöörityön tavoitteena oli suunnitella tuotteistettu tietoturvakartoitus pienille ja keskisuurille yrityksille. Työn taustalla on monien pk-yritysten puuttelliset tietoturvaratkaisut jo perustason tietoturvasta lähtien. Työn toimeksiantajana oli kajaanilainen IT-alan palveluja tarjoava Tähtimediat Oy. Tavoitteeseen kuului suunnitella, millä keinoin palvelua markkinoidaan ja mitä asiakastapaaminen sisältää. Näiden lisäksi tavoitteena oli suunnitella sovellustyökalu, johon syötetään haastattelun avulla kerätyt tiedot. Tämän jälkeen ohjelman tulisi analysoida haastattelusta saadut vastaukset sekä lähettää tulokset ja parannusehdotukset sekä Tähtimediat Oy:n edustajalle että asiakkaalle. Näiden lisäksi sovellukseen kuului suunnitella myös haastattelussa käytettävät kysymykset. Alussa insinöörityössä esitellään työssä esiintyvät keskeisimmät käsitteet "Tietoturva" ja "Tietoturvakartoitus". Tietoturvalla tarkoitetaan tietojen, järjestelmien ja palvelujen suojaamista niin normaali- kuin poikkeusoloissakin erilaisten toimenpiteiden avulla. Tietoturvakartoituksen avulla taas saadaan kuva siitä, kuinka hyvin tietoturva on yrityksessä hoidettu ja onko siinä mahdollisesti jotain parantamisen varaa. Tämän jälkeen insinöörityössä kuvataan, kuinka palvelua on tarkoitus markkinoida puhelimitse ja sähköpostitse sekä kerrotaan lyhyesti asiakastapaamisen alkutoimet. Tämän jälkeen työssä suunnitellaan, kuinka sovellustyökalu toteutetaan HTML- ja PHP-kielten avulla. Työn tuloksena saatiin suunnitelma siitä, kuinka ohjelman ensimmäinen versio eli prototyyppi toteutetaan. Työssä esitellään esimerkkejä koodeista, joita hyödyntämällä sovelluksen prorotyyppi tullaan ohjelmoimaan toimivaksi kokonaisuudeksi. Lisäksi työssä on esitetty yleisiä tekniikoita, joiden avulla on mahdollista liikennöidä turvallisesti Internetin yli. Näitä tekniikoita ovat muun muassa VPN (Virtual Private Netvork), OpenVPN, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) sekä htaccess. Lopuksi insinöörityössä pohditaan, kuinka palvelua voitaisiin jatkossa kehittää esimerkiksi hyödyntämällä tietokantoja kokoamalla kysymykset tietokantaan. Kehitysideoihin kuuluvat myös erilaiset dokumentit, kuten tietoturvapolitiikka sekä toipumissuunnitelma. Näiden lisäksi insinöörityön liitteenä on sovelluksessa käytettävät kysymykset.This Bachelor's thesis was commissioned by a company called Tähtimediat Oy. The purpose of this thesis was to plan a service that provides a change to survey the level of data security in small and medium sized companies. The thesis should include a plan of how the service will be marketed, what kind of meeting with the client it will be, and an application program where all the information of the interview should enter. The application program should include questions of data security. It should also include two kinds of functions. The first function should enable entering data to the application program and the other function should compare the answers of the questions. After comparison, the application program should give a short summary of how data security has been taken care of in the company. The summary should be sent to the email addresses of Tähtimediat Oy and the client. Firstly, it was explained what the terms data security and data security survey mean. Secondly, a few techniques that allow to operate securely over the Internet were introduced. These techniques were VPN (Virtual Private Network), OpenVPN, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and htaccess. How the service will be marketed and how the meeting with the client will proceed was planned next. Then it was planned how the application program will act and how it will be executed. As a result, 77 multiple choice questions connected with data security, marketing, and the meeting with the client were thought of. Furthermore, the execution of the application program was planned. The application program was decided to execute with the help of the HTML and PHP languages. In conclusion, the version of the application program which was planned will be the prototype. In the future the application program will be developed. This thesis also includes a few extension improvement ideas of how the service could be developed. For example, there are a few documents that could be included in the service

Transfer of training – virtual reality training with augmented multisensory cues improves user experience during training and task performance in the real world

Virtual reality (VR) can create safe, cost-effective, and engaging learning environments. It is commonly assumed that improvements in simulation fidelity lead to better learning outcomes. Some aspects of real environments, for example vestibular or haptic cues, are difficult to recreate in VR, but VR offers a wealth of opportunities to provide additional sensory cues in arbitrary modalities that provide task relevant information. The aim of this study was to investigate whether these cues improve user experience and learning outcomes, and, specifically, whether learning using augmented sensory cues translates into performance improvements in real environments. Participants were randomly allocated into three matched groups: Group 1 (control) was asked to perform a real tyre change only. The remaining two groups were trained in VR before performance was evaluated on the same, real tyre change task. Group 2 was trained using a conventional VR system, while Group 3 was trained in VR with augmented, task relevant, multisensory cues. Objective performance, time to completion and error number, subjective ratings of presence, perceived workload, and discomfort were recorded. The results show that both VR training paradigms improved performance for the real task. Providing additional, task-relevant cues during VR training resulted in higher objective performance during the real task. We propose a novel method to quantify the relative performance gains between training paradigms that estimates the relative gain in terms of training time. Systematic differences in subjective ratings that show comparable workload ratings, higher presence ratings and lower discomfort ratings, mirroring objective performance measures, were also observed. These findings further support the use of augmented multisensory cues in VR environments as an efficient method to enhance performance, user experience and, critically, the transfer of training from virtual to real environment scenarios

A pilot study investigating human behaviour towards DAVE (Dog Assisted Virtual Environment) and interpretation of non-reactive and aggressive behaviours during a virtual reality exploration task.

Dog aggression is a public health concern because dog bites often lead to physical and psychological trauma in humans. It is also a welfare concern for dogs. To prevent aggressive behaviours, it is important to understand human behaviour towards dogs and our ability to interpret signs of dog aggression. This poses ethical challenges for humans and dogs. The aim of this study was to introduce, describe and pilot test a virtual reality dog model (DAVE (Dog Assisted Virtual Environment)). The Labrador model has two different modes displaying aggressive and non-reactive non-aggressive behaviours. The aggressive behaviours displayed are based on the current understanding of canine ethology and expert feedback. The objective of the study was to test the recognition of dog behaviour and associated human approach and avoidance behaviour. Sixteen university students were recruited via an online survey to participate in a practical study, and randomly allocated to two experimental conditions, an aggressive followed by a non-reactive virtual reality model (group AN) or vice versa (group NA). Participants were instructed to 'explore the area' in each condition, followed by a survey. A Wilcoxon and Mann Whitney U test was used to compare the closest distance to the dog within and between groups respectively. Participants moved overall significantly closer to the non-reactive dog compared to the aggressive dog (p≤0.001; r = 0.8). Descriptions of the aggressive dog given by participants often used motivational or emotional terms. There was little evidence of simulator sickness and presence scores were high indicating sufficient immersion in the virtual environment. Participants appeared to perceive the dog as realistic and behaved and interacted with the dog model in a manner that might be expected during an interaction with a live dog. This study also highlights the promising results for the potential future use of virtual reality in behavioural research (i.e., human-dog interactions), education (i.e. safety around dogs) and psychological treatment (e.g. dog phobia treatment)