National Institute of Nursing Research, Advanced Visualization Branch, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
National Institute of Nursing Research, Advanced Visualization Branch, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; National Library of Medicine, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Int J Med Inform. 2024 Jul;187:105458. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2024.105458. Epub 2024 Apr 16.
Immersive virtual reality (IVR) as a research platform to study human behaviors is an emerging field and may be useful for studying self-care management, especially in the gap between formal healthcare recommendations and day-to-day living. Self-care activities, such as grocery shopping, can be challenging for people with chronic illness. We developed an IVR environment that simulates a real-life grocery store and conducted a usability study to demonstrate the safety and acceptability of IVR as an experimental environment.
This study was a three-arm randomized control trial involving 24 participants, conducted as a usability study to evaluate aspects of the experimental condition including the effectiveness of a training exposure, the occurrence of undesirable effects associated with IVR, and participants' experiences of realism, immersion, and spatial presence. The experiment, using a head mounted device and handheld controllers, included a 10-minute training exposure, followed by one of three unique 30-minute experimental conditions which exposed participants to different combinations of tasks and stimuli, and a post-experience interview. We measured controller errors, undesirable symptoms associated with IVR, and the perception of realism, immersion, and spatial presence.
Participants used controllers effectively to interact within the IVR environment. Hand controller use errors were fewer during the experimental conditions compared to the training exposure. Minimal undesirable IVR symptoms were reported. Presence was rated in the middle range with no significant differences based on experimental condition. Overall, user experience feedback was positive.
We demonstrated that participants could engage in our IVR environment without excessive error or experiencing undesirable effects and confirmed that the virtual experience attained a level of presence necessary to effectively engage in the study. These findings give us confidence that this IVR intervention designed to explore instrumental activities of daily living is safe, effective and provides a credible, controlled simulated community-like setting.
沉浸式虚拟现实（IVR）作为研究人类行为的研究平台是一个新兴领域，它可能对研究自我护理管理有用，特别是在正式医疗保健建议和日常生活之间的差距方面。对于患有慢性病的人来说，购物等自我护理活动可能具有挑战性。我们开发了一个模拟真实杂货店的 IVR 环境，并进行了一项可用性研究，以证明 IVR 作为实验环境的安全性和可接受性。
这是一项涉及 24 名参与者的三臂随机对照试验，作为一项可用性研究进行，以评估实验条件的各个方面，包括培训暴露的有效性、与 IVR 相关的不良影响的发生以及参与者对现实感、沉浸感和空间存在感的体验。该实验使用头戴式设备和手持控制器，包括 10 分钟的培训暴露，然后是三个独特的 30 分钟实验条件之一，这些条件使参与者暴露于不同的任务和刺激组合，并进行了体验后访谈。我们测量了控制器错误、与 IVR 相关的不良症状以及现实感、沉浸感和空间存在感的感知。
参与者有效地使用控制器在 IVR 环境中进行交互。与培训暴露相比，实验条件下手持控制器的使用错误较少。报告的 IVR 不良症状很少。存在感的评分处于中等范围，基于实验条件没有显著差异。总体而言，用户体验反馈是积极的。
我们证明参与者可以在没有过多错误或经历不良影响的情况下参与我们的 IVR 环境，并确认虚拟体验达到了有效参与研究所需的存在感水平。这些发现使我们有信心，这种旨在探索日常工具性活动的 IVR 干预措施是安全、有效且提供了可信、受控的类似社区模拟环境。
