Creators

Hei Ting Tamar WONG School of Creative Media

Chi Wing Eric LO School of Creative Media 

About the Work

This prototype is developed in collaboration with The Hospital Authority Community Rehabilitation Service Support Center. Given that new wheelchair users are required to attend a set of continuous proper training sessions prior to being able to maneuver through various routes and locations on their wheelchairs by themselves, we set out to produce a training simulator and a series of training programs that simulate driving a power wheelchair based on real, Hong Kong specific scenarios. This allows new users to practice indoors safely and gain confidence before practicing outdoors.

Mechanism

We implemented a 3D virtual simulator system using a game engine and constructed a set of training scenarios that simulated real-life conditions for users to learn how to properly drive a power wheelchair in real situations. An actual electric wheelchair controller is physically installed and connected to the virtual simulator in order to provide realistic controls for users. The users are able to use the controller to move the virtual wheelchair in the simulator as they do with a real power wheelchair. The simulator supports various fully immersive virtual reality techniques including CAVE and VR headsets. Depending on needs, more scenarios can be easily implemented and added into the system.

Awards
Hong Kong ICT Awards (HKICTA) 2019: the Student Innovation (Post-Secondary and Undergraduate) Silver Award