Life Sciences VR Development Kit
Client: Biopac Systems
Application: Life Sciences focused development package for Virtual Reality applications
Equipment Used: WorldViz Vizard 3D software toolkit, WorldViz PPT X8 optical inertial hybrid wide-area tracking system, eMagin Z800 head mounted display, NVIS nVisor SX head-mounted display
Vision
Biopac, the leader in life sciences equipment, partnered with WorldViz to create a Virtual Reality Starter Kit which increases the value of their core product line and expands the life sciences market. Virtual Reality enables Life Scientists to create controlled and repeatable experimental setups, to manipulate the world in ways normally impossible or prohibitively expensive in reality, and to automate analysis of physiological data.
The starter kit needed to support the diverse application domains of life scientists, be easy to use for VR beginners, and affordable for the fixed budget researcher. Extensive experience with flexible and inexpensive VR systems made WorldViz the top choice for Biopac.
Solution
In close collaboration, Biopac and WorldViz produced a package including:
Vizard VR Toolkit Software: Making VR accessible required a software solution integrating fMRI signals, bio-response data, motion tracking input, and 3D rendering. Vizard fulfills these requirements while supporting videogame-like interaction and avatars. Researchers use Vizard to create interactive, immersive experiments. Vizard's high-level scripting language empowers even users with no programming experience to leap into the world of interactive 3D content creation.
Sample Experiments: WorldViz created four applications with Vizard, demonstrating the functionality of the VR development kit and providing customers with a starting point for developing their own applications. As part of the kit customers receive a full license to the code and art assets of each application.
- Public Speaking: Asks the participant to deliver a speech to an audience of 3D avatars. The experimenter uses the keyboard to change the audience's attitude from attentive to bored to shouting. The kit recodes the participants anxiety as the audience's attitude varies.
- Fear of Flying: The participant is seated in a passenger aircraft and experiences take-off, normal flight, turbulence, and landing. The experimenter triggers these events via keyboard and records the participant's physiological response. A low-frequency speaker placed under the participant's chair provides tactile stimulus.
- Cue Reactivity: Exposes the participant to a sequence of rooms containing cigarette smoking-related 3D models, designed to elicit reactions caused by addiction. Some rooms contain neutral objects that provide a baseline for evaluating the smoking-related stimulus. The stimulus items are easily replaceable for studies of other subjects.
- Acrophobia: Places the participant in a construction elevator on the side of a building, emphasizing the elevation changes. The experimenter controls the movement of the elevator between floors and records the physiological reaction of the participant.
Hardware: With WorldViz's guidance, Biopac decided to offer two hardware packages: The first package includes an eMagin Z800 head-mounted display and an InterSense InertiaCube, suitable for applications with a seated participant. Customers have the option to upgrade to an nVisor SX head-mounted display and a PPT optical-inertial tracking system. This upgraded solution allows the participant to actually walk around in the virtual world.
This VR hardware solution is combined with the wide range of existing hardware that Biopac offers for the measurement of physiological responses. Physiological data from a Biopac MP system can be synchronized against events in the virtual world, allowing for accurate and automated data analysis. The Biopac MP150 System also supports network data transfer and extensive Specialized Analysis tools.
Result
Recognized as a powerful multimodal participant stimulus tool, Biopac and WorldViz announced the Virtual Reality Starter Kit at the Neuroscience 2007 conference in San Diego, California. Customers were excited about the solution's support for rich, interactive 3D worlds. Expert visitors also praised the Development Kit's ability to synchronize events from the virtual world with the physiological data record, allowing accurate and automated data analysis.
See Biopac's product page for further information about the VR Development Kit for Life Sciences package.
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