Impact of Virtual Reality-Generated Construction Environments at Different Heights on Postural Stability and Fall Risk

An Immersive and Interactive VR Dataset to Elicit Emotions

Images and videos are widely used to elicit emotions; however, their visual appeal differs from real-world experiences. With virtual reality becoming more realistic, immersive, and interactive, we envision virtual environments to elicit emotions effectively, rapidly, and with high ecological validity. This work presents the first interactive virtual reality dataset to elicit emotions. We created five interactive virtual environments based on corresponding validated 360° videos and validated their effectiveness with 160 participants. Our results show that our virtual environments successfully elicit targeted emotions. Compared with the existing methods using images or videos, our dataset allows virtual reality researchers and practitioners to integrate their designs effectively with emotion elicitation settings in an immersive and interactive way.

Influence of Visual Stimulus Changes in a Virtual Environment on Postural Control: Focusing on a Hallway Walking Simulation

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of the standing center of gravity sway by providing visual stimulus information as if the subjects were walking in virtual reality (VR) and by monitoring conditions with different corridor widths. We included 25 healthy young individuals in our study. The center of gravity sway was measured during open- and closed-eye static standing using images of walking in corridors of different widths (780 and 1600 mm) presented on a VR and personal computer monitor (Monitor). The parameters measured for the center of gravity sway were swing path length (SPL), height of excursion (HoE), and width of excursion (WoE). The results showed that the SPL and HoE values were significantly greater in the VR group than those in the Monitor group. The greater center of gravity sway in the VR compared with the Monitor group can be attributed to the ability of the head-mounted VR display to cover the entire field of vision and its head-tracking function. There was no change in the center of gravity sway with respect to the corridor width, which may be because the width of the corridor alone did not provide sufficient visual stimulation to affect physical function. This research could lead to further studies which could impact the motivation of patients for rehabilitation therapies.

Development of a new immersive virtual reality (VR) headset-based dexterity training for patients with multiple sclerosis: Clinical and technical aspects

BACKGROUND

Impaired manual dexterity is frequent and disabling in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), affecting activities of daily living and quality of life.

OBJECTIVE

To develop a new immersive virtual-reality (VR) headset-based dexterity training to improve impaired manual dexterity in persons with MS (pwMS) while being feasible and usable in a home-based setting.

METHODS

The training intervention was tailored to the specific group of pwMS by implementing a simple and intuitive application with regard to hardware and software. To be efficacious, the training intervention covers the main functions of the hands and arm relevant for use in everyday life.

RESULTS

Taking clinical, feasibility, usability as well as technical aspects with regard to hardware and software into account, six different training exercises using hand tracking technology were developed on the Meta quest 2 using Unity.

CONCLUSION

We report the developmental process of a new immersive virtual VR headset-based dexterity training for pwMS implementing clinical and technical aspects. Good feasibility, usability, and patient satisfaction was already shown in a feasibility study qualifying this training intervention for further efficacy trials.

Fear of heights shapes postural responses to vibration-induced balance perturbation at virtual height

Introduction

Standing upright at height is a challenging situation involving intense threat of balance loss and fall. The ability to maintain balance in such conditions requires properly resolving sensory conflicts and is influenced by fear. To get more insight on the role of fear in balance control at height, we explored the dynamics of postural behavior in the situation of enhanced threat of potential balance loss.

Methods

In 40 young individuals with varying fear of heights, we combined simulated exposure to height in a virtual reality environment with bilateral vibration of tibialis anterior muscles which evokes posture destabilization (the so-called vibration-induced falling).

Results

Under such condition of enhanced postural threat, individuals with intense fear of heights showed stronger stiffening of posture compared with individuals with low fear of heights who react more flexibly and adaptively to posture destabilization. This group difference was evident already at ground level but further increased during virtual height exposure.

Discussion

Our data show that fear of height significantly affects posture adaptation to balance-destabilizing events. Our findings demonstrate that the assessment of postural behavior during threatening situations in the virtual reality environment provides valuable insights into the mechanisms of balance control and may be used to develop novel strategies aimed at prevention of falls.

A systematic review of the application of immersive technologies for safety and health management in the construction sector

INTRODUCTION

The construction industry employs about 7% of global manpower and contributes about 6% to the global economy. However, statistics have depicted that the construction industry contributes significantly to workplace fatalities and injuries despite multiple interventions (including technological applications) implemented by governments and construction companies. Recently, immersive technologies as part of a suite of industry 4.0 technologies, have also strongly emerged as a viable pathway to help address poor construction occupational safety and health (OSH) performance.

METHOD

With the aim of gaining a broad view of different construction OSH issues addressed using immersive technologies, a review on the application of immersive technologies for construction OSH management is conducted using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) approach and bibliometric analysis of literature. This resulted in the evaluation of 117 relevant papers collected from three online databases (Scopus, Web of Science, and Engineering Village).

RESULTS

The review revealed that literature have focused on the application of various immersive technologies for hazard identification and visualization, safety training, design for safety, risk perception, and assessment in various construction works. The review identified several limitations regarding the use of immersive technologies, which include the low level of adoption of the developed immersive technologies for OSH management by the construction industry, very limited research on the application of immersive technologies for health hazards, and limited focus on the comparison of the effectiveness of various immersive technologies for construction OSH management.

CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

For future research, it is recommended to identify possible reasons for the low transition level from research to industry practice and proffer solutions to the identified issues. Another recommendation is the study of the effectiveness of the use of immersive technologies for addressing health hazards in comparison to the conventional methods.

Effects of virtual reality immersion on postural stability during a dynamic transition task

Dynamic postural stability paradigms with virtual reality (VR) provide a means to simulate real-world postural challenges and induce customised but controlled perturbations. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a VR unanticipated perceptual sport perturbation on postural stability compared to traditional methods. Sixteen individuals between the ages of 18-23 years (19.5 ± 1.4 years) with no history of injury within 12 months were recruited. A double-leg to single-leg transition task was performed on a force plate in one of the following conditions: eyes open (EO), eyes closed (EC), a sport video with a standard non-immersive computer monitor (SV), and VR. The VR and SV conditions used a pre-recorded tackle avoidance task video where participants shifted to a leg in the opposite direction of a simulated opponent, while EC and EO were completed with auditory prompts. Relative to the EO condition, EC and VR induced greater postural instability. The largest effect sizes were between VR and EO for path length (g = 3.57), mean velocity anterior-posterior centre of pressure (CoP) (g = 3.65), and mean velocity medial-lateral CoP (g = 3.27). By including VR, the difficulty of a clinically based postural stability task was increased to the level of EC while accounting for the sporting environment.

Critical Analysis of the Evaluation Methods of Extended Reality (XR) Experiences for Construction Safety

The construction industry has high accident rates. The sector is exploring various tools to improve safety management, training, and awareness to achieve zero accidents. This work focuses on extended reality (XR), which encompasses virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) technologies. Several authors have developed training experiences for construction safety in XR environments with positive conclusions about their effectiveness. However, there is no standardization regarding the evaluation methods used in the sector, and many experiences do not use any method. This lack is critical, as whenever the aim is to evaluate the degree of awareness of security issues, the implementation of evaluation systems is indispensable to make known the methods used in the literature to evaluate the effectiveness of the experiences and represent support for future research. This research identifies developments in XR experiences and analyzes the validation methods through a systematic review using the PRISMA methodology. It identifies two evaluation methods, objective and subjective, which are each broken down into four categories. The results show the types of evaluation, safety-related purposes, and safety application objectives used by the database classification.

The Walls Are Closing In: Postural Responses to a Virtual Reality Claustrophobic Simulation

Background: Changes in the visual environment and thereby, the spatial orientation, can induce postural instability leading to falls. Virtual reality (VR) has been used to expose individuals to virtual environments (VE) that increase postural threats. Claustrophobia is an anxiety disorder categorized under situational phobias and can induce such postural threats in a VE. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate if VR-generated claustrophobic simulation has any impact on postural threats that might lead to postural instability. Methods: Thirty healthy men and women (age: 20.7 ± 1.2 years; height: 166.5 ± 7.3 cm; mass: 71.7 ± 16.2 kg) were tested for postural stability while standing on a force platform, upon exposure to five different testing trials, including a normal stance (NoVR), in stationary VE (VR), and three consecutive, randomly initiated, unexpected claustrophobia trials (VR CP1, VR CP2, VR CP3). The claustrophobia trials involved all four walls closing in towards the center of the room. Center of pressure (COP)-derived postural sway variables were analyzed with a one-way repeated measures analysis of variance at an alpha level of 0.05. Results: Significant main effect differences existed in all but one dependent COP-derived postural sway variables, at p < 0.05. Post-hoc pairwise comparisons with a Bonferroni correction revealed that, predominantly, postural sway excursions were significantly lower in claustrophobia trials compared to NoVR and VR, but only accomplished with significantly increased sway velocity. Conclusion: The VR CP trials induced lower postural sway magnitude, but with increased velocity, suggesting a bracing and co-contraction strategy when exposed to virtual claustrophobic postural threats. Additionally, postural sway decreased with subsequent claustrophobia trials, suggesting potential motor learning effects. Findings from the study offer insights to postural control behavior under virtual claustrophobic simulations and can aid in VR exposure therapy for claustrophobia.

The Effects of Virtual Height Exposure on Postural Control and Psychophysiological Stress Are Moderated by Individual Height Intolerance

Virtual reality (VR) enables individuals to be exposed to naturalistic environments in laboratory settings, offering new possibilities for research in human neuroscience and treatment of mental disorders. We used VR to study psychological, autonomic and postural reactions to heights in individuals with varying intensity of fear of heights. Study participants (N = 42) were immersed in a VR of an unprotected open-air elevator platform in an urban area, while standing on an unstable ground. Virtual elevation of the platform (up to 40 m above the ground level) elicited robust and reliable psychophysiological activation including increased distress, heart rate, and electrodermal activity, which was higher in individuals suffering from fear of heights. In these individuals, compared with individuals with low fear of heights, the VR height exposure resulted in higher velocity of postural movements as well as decreased low-frequency (<0.5 Hz) and increased high-frequency (>1 Hz) body sway oscillations. This indicates that individuals with strong fear of heights react to heights with maladaptive rigidity of posture due to increased weight of visual input for balance control, while the visual information is less reliable at heights. Our findings show that exposure to height in a naturalistic VR environment elicits a complex reaction involving correlated changes of the emotional state, autonomic activity, and postural balance, which are exaggerated in individuals with fear of heights.

The Effects of Visual Backgrounds in the Virtual Environments on the Postural Stability of Standing

A photorealistic scene in a head mount display (HMD) is considered high fidelity and associated with postural stability similar to that in the real world, but the effects of visual background under different standing conditions have not been examined. Thirty-four healthy adults performed four standing (standardized, narrow, tandem and one-leg) tasks in three scenes with an HMD, while viewing one of three scenes: a real room (real scene, RS), a photorealistic scene (VrS) and a blank scene (BS). The effects of the visual scenes and standing tasks on sway parameters were analyzed. Romberg quotients (RQs) of the sway parameters were compared between RS and VrS with reference to BS to compare visual contribution to posture stability. Sway parameters were similar during all three scenes during the standardized and narrow standing tasks, but higher in VrS and BS conditions than in the RS condition during the tandem and one-leg standing tasks. The effects of visual scenes on postural stability showed a significant interaction with the standing tasks. The BS/VsR and BS/RS ratios were close to 1.0 for the standardized and narrow standing tasks, and the magnitude of increase was lower for BS/VsR than BS/RS during the tandem and one-leg standing tasks, indicating different levels of visual dependence. The effects of virtual scenes on postural stability were task-dependent. Adjusting the amount of visual stimuli and choosing tasks with higher postural demands may result in synergic effects, but the influence of visual environments should be examined with consideration of visual targeting.

Factors for the Automation of the Creation of Virtual Reality Experiences to Raise Awareness of Occupational Hazards on Construction Sites

Two of the differential characteristics of the AECO sector (architecture, engineering, construction and operation) are barriers for the mass creation of training materials for its workers. On the one hand, the workplace is unique and changing over time; on the other, the aging trend of its workers and the unattractive nature of the industry for new generations of professionals. These two problems can be tackled by virtual reality technologies, which allow the agile creation of all kinds of scenarios, while their current technology may be attractive to young people and intuitive for everyone. This work shows the results of an investigation that seeks to provide automated tools based on virtual reality experiences to support learning in occupational risk prevention. This objective is part of the development of a culture for prevention, which allows the treatment of the human factor, with all its complexity and casuistry. The proposal includes the development of a process and tools that allow replicating the specific scenario where the work will be carried out, incorporating risks and probable incidents, systematically establishing cause-effect relationships, incorporating a narrative (storytelling) that provides emotional meaning to users and Lastly, the creation of a workflow that facilitates the agile development of these virtual reality experiences for each specific work.

The Effects of Cognitive Task and Change of Height on Postural Stability and Cardiovascular Stress in Workers Working at Height

The purpose of the study was to analyze the effects of cognitive task and change of height on the postural stability and cardiovascular stress of at-height workers. The study included 32 healthy men aged 25-47. Due to the type of work performed, two groups were identified: at‒height workers, HW (n = 16), and office workers (mainly work at desk with a computer) OW (n = 16). The objective measures of postural stability (posturography) and cardiovascular stress (heart rate monitor) were evaluated for both groups at two different platform heights (ground level and 1 m above the ground) with or without cognitive task (backward counting). The increased height and the cognitive task were found to significantly affect measures of postural stability and cardiovascular stress. It was observed that in inexperienced OW employees, higher platform height and performing a cognitive task meant that posture stability significantly decreased, while cardiovascular stress and difficulties in maintaining balance increased. In HW group postural stability is less affected by distress conditions than in OW group.