(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-08)
García-Vergara, Sergio; Li, Hongfei; Howard, Ayanna M.
During physical therapy intervention protocols, it's important to consider the individual's intrinsic motivation to perform in-home recommended exercises. Physical therapy exercises can become tedious thus limiting the individual's progress. Not only have researchers developed serious gaming systems to increase user motivation, but they have
also worked on the design aesthetics since results have shown positive
effects on the users' performance for attractive models. As such, we improved the aesthetics of a previously developed serious game called Super
Pop VR™. Namely, we improved the game graphics, added new game
features, and allowed for more game options to provide users the opportunity to tailor their own experience. The conducted user studies show that participants rank the version of the game with the improved aesthetics higher in terms of the amount of interest/enjoyment it generates, thus allowing for an increase in intrinsic motivation when interacting
with the system.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-06)
García-Vergara, Sergio; Howard, Ayanna M.
Virtual reality serious game platforms have been developed to enhance the effectiveness of rehabilitation protocols for those with motor skill disorders. Such systems increase the user’s motivation to perform the recommended in-home therapy exercises, but typically don’t incorporate an objective method for assessing the user’s outcome metrics. We expand on the commonly used human modeling method, Fitt’s law, used to predict the amount of time needed to complete a task, and apply it as an assessment method for virtual environments. During game-play, we compare the user’s movement time to the predicted value as a means for assessing the individual’s kinematic performance. Taking into consideration the structure of virtual gaming environments, we expand the nominal Fitt’s model to one that makes accurate time predictions for three-dimensional movements. Results show that the three-dimensional refinement made to the Fitt’s model makes better predictions when interacting with virtual gaming platforms than its two-dimensional counterpart.