Evaluation of Virtual Reality for Usability Studies in Occupational Safety and Health

摘要

Virtual reality (VR) has grown into a simulation tool for humans to interact with dynamic virtual environments and into a methodology for applied research in human-machine system design and evaluation. Applications of VR nowadays often concern human-machine interface design and evaluation. The VR of the IFA is already in use for e.g. usability investigations of safety devices. In the present study, however, the VR system itself is evaluated by addressing usability in terms of ergonomic basics and of human information processing for appropriate human-robot interaction. An application of a checklist and heuristic evaluations on ergonomics resulted in continuous improvements of the VR system. In a pilot experimental study the effects of intensity of human-robot interaction on human information processing has been investigated by means of task performance measures, psychophysiology and questionnaires. Also included were tests for simulator sickness and the level of immersion and presence under human-robot interaction in VR. The results of the pilot study suggest a high quality of the VR system with simulator sickness not being an issue and immersion and presence experienced at medium to high levels. More intensive human-robot interaction in VR increased the experience of presence, accompanied by shifts in human performance indicating an increase in human information processing demands. Although the empirical basis is too small to draw general conclusions, results are promising for future VR evaluation studies that will include comparisons of human-robot interaction in VR with reality. Applied usability research with VR on accident prevention and product safety as already initiated by accident insurance institutions can therefore be performed under fortunate circumstances.