School of Health Professions, University of Alabama-Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2010 Feb 19;7:11. doi: 10.1186/1743-0003-7-11.
As physical and cognitive rehabilitation protocols utilizing virtual environments transition from single applications to comprehensive rehabilitation programs there is a need for a new design cycle methodology. Current human-computer interaction designs focus on usability without benchmarking technology within a user-in-the-loop design cycle. The field of virtual rehabilitation is unique in that determining the efficacy of this genre of computer-aided therapies requires prior knowledge of technology issues that may confound patient outcome measures. Benchmarking the technology (e.g., displays or data gloves) using healthy controls may provide a means of characterizing the "normal" performance range of the virtual rehabilitation system. This standard not only allows therapists to select appropriate technology for use with their patient populations, it also allows them to account for technology limitations when assessing treatment efficacy.
An overview of the proposed user-centered design cycle is given. Comparisons of two optical see-through head-worn displays provide an example of benchmarking techniques. Benchmarks were obtained using a novel vision test capable of measuring a user's stereoacuity while wearing different types of head-worn displays. Results from healthy participants who performed both virtual and real-world versions of the stereoacuity test are discussed with respect to virtual rehabilitation design.
The user-centered design cycle argues for benchmarking to precede virtual environment construction, especially for therapeutic applications. Results from real-world testing illustrate the general limitations in stereoacuity attained when viewing content using a head-worn display. Further, the stereoacuity vision benchmark test highlights differences in user performance when utilizing a similar style of head-worn display. These results support the need for including benchmarks as a means of better understanding user outcomes, especially for patient populations.
The stereoacuity testing confirms that without benchmarking in the design cycle poor user performance could be misconstrued as resulting from the participant's injury state. Thus, a user-centered design cycle that includes benchmarking for the different sensory modalities is recommended for accurate interpretation of the efficacy of the virtual environment based rehabilitation programs.
随着利用虚拟环境进行的物理和认知康复方案从单一应用过渡到综合康复方案，需要一种新的设计周期方法。当前的人机交互设计侧重于可用性，而在用户参与的设计周期中没有对技术进行基准测试。虚拟康复领域的独特之处在于，要确定此类计算机辅助疗法的疗效，就需要先了解可能影响患者结果测量的技术问题。使用健康对照者对技术（例如，显示器或数据手套）进行基准测试，可以提供一种方法来描述虚拟康复系统的“正常”性能范围。该标准不仅允许治疗师为其患者群体选择合适的技术，还允许他们在评估治疗效果时考虑技术限制。
给出了拟议的以用户为中心的设计周期概述。对两种光学透视头戴式显示器的比较提供了基准测试技术的示例。使用一种新型的视觉测试来获取基准，该测试能够在佩戴不同类型的头戴式显示器时测量用户的立体视锐度。讨论了在虚拟康复设计方面，佩戴不同类型的头戴式显示器的健康参与者执行虚拟和真实版本的立体视锐度测试的结果。
以用户为中心的设计周期认为，基准测试应先于虚拟环境的构建，尤其是对于治疗应用。来自真实世界测试的结果说明了在使用头戴式显示器查看内容时获得的立体视锐度的一般局限性。此外，立体视锐度视觉基准测试突出了在使用类似风格的头戴式显示器时用户性能的差异。这些结果支持将基准测试作为更好地理解用户结果的一种手段的需求，尤其是对于患者群体。
立体视锐度测试证实，如果在设计周期中没有进行基准测试，那么用户表现不佳可能会被误解为是参与者的受伤状态所致。因此，建议采用以用户为中心的设计周期，其中包括对不同感觉模式的基准测试，以便准确解释基于虚拟环境的康复方案的疗效。
