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A First Postural Tracking Using a Kinect v2 Sensor During an Immersive Wheelchair Driving Simulation

Authors:
Franck Pouvrasseau
Eric Monacelli
Sébastien Charles

Keywords: virtual reality, simulation, wheelchair training, rehab, postural tracking

Abstract:
Wheelchair simulators using virtual reality have been conceived for a better understanding of the mobility problem, and also to train people in wheelchair driving. Virtual Fauteuil is an immersive simulator equipped with a compact motion platform that reproduces physical effects like collisions, or being on slopes along the roll and pitch axis. Like most of the existing simulators, Virtual Fauteuil offers a training program, based on the performances of the user. However, a parameter is neglected for the performance evaluation, which is the posture of the user, although it affects his stability. This study focus on a light, basic and non-invasive solution for body tracking, the Kinect v2 sensor, and its implementation in the simulator Virtual Fauteuil. The experiment conducted in this paper consists in analyzing the movement of the torso when the user lives a perturbation in the simulator. This first postural evaluation has been done with 12 participants (9 males and 3 females). They were not asked to drive the wheelchair. The simulator was indeed programmed in such a manner that the avatar follows by itself a straight route composed of bumps which cause physical perturbations through the simulator. The experiment was in two sessions. During the first session, the travel was not displayed on the screen, so it means that the users lived perturbations without expecting it. During the second session, the participant lived the same travel but this time, with a visual immersion on a front screen. Perturbations are measured by investigating the rotation of the trunk compared to the rotation of the platform. Results shows that participants were more impacted by perturbation when the simulation was displayed on the screen. We also found that for the experiment, participants were immune to trunk flexions, which means that the trunk of participants were mostly straight during disturbances. In-depth study will soon be done around the postural response of the user and on different exercises.

Pages: 154 to 158

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2019

Publication date: February 24, 2019

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4138

ISBN: 978-1-61208-686-6

Location: Athens, Greece

Dates: from February 24, 2019 to February 28, 2019