Team Name
VR Care Connectors
Timeline
Fall 2024 – Spring 2025
Students
- Jeffrey Carver – Software Engineering
- Nardos Kassa – Computer Science
- Ebin Poole – Computer Science
- Kayla Toliver – Computer Science
- Natalie Tonnu – Computer Science
Sponsor
Darlene Hunter, Tracy Orwig, Sophie Fantus
Abstract
This project is intended to help train nursing students to have empathy for and learn to adjust a hospital check-up room to accommodate patients with various types of disabilities. To facilitate this, the project implements realistic lighting, assets, and textures to enhance the realism of the simulation and allows the user to manipulate the assets in order to complete one of three scenarios.
Background
There are people globally who dream of becoming doctors, nurses, and other occupations in the health care field because they want to help others. One way to help medical students learn the environment of a health care room is by hands-on experience. Technology has developed exponentially over time, and virtual reality (VR) has become much more popular with its close-to-realistic simulation. In addition, the people who need health care assistance the most are people with disabilities. So, how can students navigate a health care room when helping a patient with a disability? VR has become a valuable resource for environmental navigation and hands-on experience from the safety of a remote room.
Project Requirements
- Implement physics.
- Implement proper collisions.
- Implement proper lighting.
- Implement missing assets.
- Implement multiple scenarios.
- Update outdated assets into new engine style.
- Implement interactivity for all assets.
- Ensure compatibility with all Quest 2 headsets.
- Optimize simulation for least battery strain on Quest 2 headsets.
- Restrict movement requirements to ensure user safety while using simulation.
Design Constraints
- Interoperability: Unreal projects are portable to many different platforms.
- Aesthetics: Project looks as realistic as possible given limited timeframe and starting domain knowledge.
- Cost: Unreal Engine is free for small developers and as such is a highly cost-effective tool for development.
- Safety: Simulation requires little to no movement from the user to minimize risk of environmental hazards in the user’s area.
- Usability: Controls are simple and intuitive and follow typical VR gaming expectations.
Engineering Standards
- ADA Compliance: compliant mats, restroom setup, adjustable bed, etc.
- IACET Compliance: Simulation causes low physical or psychological stress.
- Software Testing Standards: Quest 2 compatibility and quality testing.
- Common Engineering Standards: Jira used for version control.
- Programming/Web Dev Standards: Built with Unreal Engine 5.4.
System Overview
The simulation offers the user to perform one of three scenarios in which the user sets up a typical hospital room in order to accommodate an incoming patient with one of three disability types. The scenarios include: sensory (audio/visual) impairment, mobility impairment, and ADS. The simulation allows the user to pick up and interact with many different assets to prepare the room. The simulation also allows the user to change the level at which the lights are set (from bright to dim to turned off), and change the height level of the bed to prepare for patient use. The simulation uses Unreal Engine 5.4.
Results
- Implemented proper physics in simulation.
- Implemented proper Unreal-style lighting in simulation.
- Upgraded all textures and assets to be Unreal-compatible and dramatically improved realism of simulation.
- Introduced all missing assets to the simulation and outfit them for functionality.
- Implemented the ability for the user to choose the scenario they’d like to simulate.
Demo Video:
Future Work
- Extend the hospital to include more interactive objects, rooms, and features.
- Add an AI-powered patient that can respond in real time to the user’s words and actions in the simulation, giving a more realistic experience of helping a disabled patient.
Project Files
Project Charter
System Requirements Specification
Architectural Design Specification
Detailed Design Specification
Poster
References
[1] VR Simulations of Mental Illness: An Educational Tool. Technical report, University of Pennsylvania Undergraduate Research Journal, 2010.
[2] Christina Couch. Disability-Simulating VR Promotes Empathy, 2016.
[3] Dhruv Jain. A VR Experience Simulating Deafness, 2016.
[4] Albert A. Rizzo. The Application Of Virtual Reality Technology In Rehabilitation, 2001.
[5] Unknown. Nurses demonstrating a balancing system for a lady with disabilities, 2020.
[6] Viscira. VR Applications for Understanding Schizophrenia and Macular Degeneration, 2020.
