Design of a Virtual School Environment for Power

Design of a Virtual School Environment for Power Wheelchair Training By Max Edmands, Alana Searleman, and Katelynn Wilton Mentored by Professor Janice Searleman

Outline • Goal • Previous Work • Process – Importation – Physicalization – Storyboarding – Intelligent Agents • Demonstration • Future Work

Purpose and Goals • Training is: – necessary for funding – inconvenient and dangerous • Virtual wheelchair is a good alternative • Focus group: Children with cerebral palsy • Goal: Create a “serious game” that takes place in a virtual school

Previous Work The Virtual Reality Wheelchair Simulator

Previous Work • Kyle Burdick's house • Chad Homan’s Wheelchair training facility • Cassandra Dearborn's school – Created in 3 D Studio Max – Needs conversion to Virtools

Process • Exporting from 3 D Studio Max • Importing to Virtools – Converting from english to metric units – Placing objects – Replacing textures – Duplicating – Renaming • VSL renaming script

Physics • Havok physics engine • The physicalization process – Attach the “Physicalize” building block – Rediscover a script to physicalize groups of objects – Manipulate the wheelchair in our new environment

Storyboarding • A school schedule • Objectives in each room, for each class – Obstacle course in gym – Computer game in computer room – Hunt for a book in the library • Player has to get to classes on time

Intelligent Agents • Characters that walk around the world – Classmates – Teachers – Assistants – Janitors • Differing levels of challenge based on difficulty level of game

Demonstration

Future Work • Finish importing the virtual school – more classrooms – more tasks – sound & sound effects – lighting • Optimization • Customization • Other Applications – e. g. life skills training

Thank You To • • • Cassandra Dearborn Kyle Daniel Burdick Ajay Sonar Chad Homan Dr. David Craig & the Honors Department

References Sonar, A. V. , Burdick, K. D. , Begin, R. R. , Resch, E. M. , Thompson, E. M. , Thacher, E. , Searleman, J. , Fulk, G. , Carroll, J. J. Development of a Virtual Reality Based Power Wheel Chair Simulator. IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Sep. 2005. Chatham, R. E. , “Games for Training, ” Communications of the ACM, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 36 -43, July 2007. Burdick K. D. “Virtual environment design for a virtual reality wheelchair simulator. ” Unpublished undergraduate honors thesis, Clarkson University, 2005. Burdick, K. D. and Searleman, J. T. Virtual Environment Design & Human Computer Interaction with a Virtual Reality Wheelchair Simulator. SURE conference, Clarkson University, Aug. 2004. Homan, C. “Design of an Intelligent Tutoring System for Teaching Power Wheelchair Operation in a Virtual Environment. ” Unpublished master’s thesis, Clarkson University, 2005. Dearborn, C. “Realistic modeling of a virtual environment for a virtual reality wheelchair. ” Unpublished undergraduate honors thesis, Clarkson University, 2007. Osterberg, A. E. & Kain, D. J. Access for Everyone: A guide to accessibility with references to ADAAG. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 2002. Gauthier, J. M. Building Interactive Worlds in 3 D: Virtual Sets and Pre-Visualization for Games, Film, and the Web. Burlington, MA: Focal Press, 2005. Kelly, H. et al. “How to Build a Serious Game. ” Communications of the ACM, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 44 -49, July 2007. White, D. , Burdick, K. , Fulk, G. , Searleman, J. , Carroll, J. A Virtual Reality Application for Stroke Patient Rehabilitation. IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Sep. 2005.

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