The immersive experience that virtual reality (VR) offers has been overwhelmingly positive on many fronts. VR has not only proven to be an engaging educational tool in classroom and training situations, but it’s also become a beneficial aid in health care — from mental health therapy to rehabilitation.
Unfortunately, some people have a hard time using VR, reporting symptoms such as motion sickness and eye strain with prolonged use. Few groups struggle with the technology more than those with balance impairments. A trio of UTSA researchers are hoping to change that. They are leading a $1.2 million project funded over three years by the National Science Foundation to make virtual reality (VR) universally accessible. Their research aims to revolutionize VR experiences for people with balance impairments, a condition that affects an estimated 69 million people in the U.S. alone.
The project, titled Adaptive Auditory Feedback to Improve Balance in Virtual Reality at Home, is led by Professor John Quarles and Assistant Professor Kevin Desai from the UTSA Department of Computer Science and Professor Alberto Cordova from the university’s Department of Kinesiology. They’re teaming up to find a solution that would enable individuals with balance challenges to more regularly enjoy the benefits of VR, including rehabilitation, education and fitness. Their work will be especially helpful for people with neurological disorders, vestibular disfunction and the elderly.
The UTSA researchers are developing specialized audio feedback — sounds or noises controlled with artificial intelligence (AI) — to improve a VR user’s balance. Quarles, Desai and Cordova examined several auditory techniques, including sending white noise signals through headphones, to see if these sounds could help reduce a person’s imbalance.
Desai says the team’s preliminary research demonstrated that some auditory signals, such as white noise, did help people improve their balance.
“This specific project is going to be very exciting, because the end goal of this is to provide a means for people to use the VR devices at home, not just in lab environments,” he says. “This project is all about improving VR to enable people to have a better quality of life.”
WATCH: UTSA researchers test VR technology in the lab to make it more accessible for users with balance impairments.
In phase one of the research study, conducted in UTSA’s San Pedro I Building, participants are secured in a harness as they stand on a balancing board wearing a VR headset and a special suit. A camera system surrounds them, capturing their every move from multiple angles to study their balance. The data that the researchers collect is used to create and fine-tune AI models. These models are then used in a VR environment to provide auditory signals that ensure the individual is steady.
Nipa Anjum, a doctoral student in computer science, is one of four UTSA students contributing to the development of a data collection system that is precisely capturing each participant’s pose data. Once the data is gathered, the students will analyze it to estimate each individual’s balance.
“I really feel great to work on this project,” Anjum says. “It was really a new experience for me to work with different types of people, like those with and without disabilities. I feel good about doing something for them.”
