IDEA

Inition was asked to produce an experience that could be taken to exhibitions to demonstrate some of the symptoms associated with Multiple Sclerosis. The experience needed to give the user a sensations of shaking and lack of grip in both hands.

CHALLENGES

To produce an experience that had minimal set up time an could be used easily by many people at an exhibition, but engaging enough to make the user really appreciate the debilitating affects of MS. The force feed back gloves had never been used in this way before, and was in fact the first time they had been used in the UK for any commercial application.

SOLUTION

We consulted with an MS sufferer to establish the affects of MS on there hands, in order to feed this real life data into the application. We then created a virtual reality environment in Unity where the user was asked to perform the simple task of re-potting a plant whilst using the force feedback gloves developed by Sensor glove. The gloves were tracked in VR down to the finger level of movement, and feedback through the gloves gave the user the sensation of gripping objects. Once the user completed the task they were then asked to repeat the process but this time the application gave the user the affects of MS. These included a lack of grip simulated through restricted movement in the glove as well as a shaking affect simulated in VR by shaking the virtual hand in the application.

TECHNOLOGIES USED

Unity, Sensor Glove Forces, HTC Vive

RESULT

The application was used in an event in Berlin where over 200 people experienced the VR installation. Many MS sufferers experience the symptoms in one hand more than the other and we were fortunate enough to have MS sufferers try the experience for themselves using there better hand. The feedback received was it felt exactly like the symptoms they have in there affected hand which was very rewarding. The client was extremely happy with the installation and went on to use the experience again for a further week at another event.

Sensor Glove Development

Final VR Experience