Adaptation of Interaction Mechanisms in Virtual Reality Shopping Environments for People with Upper Limb Motor Difficulties
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Date
2024
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
The Eurographics Association
Abstract
In recent years, there has been research and exploration into the development of new shopping experiences within the field of electronic commerce (e-commerce). One of the technologies that can offer a more immersive shopping experience is Virtual Reality (VR). Retail giants such as Amazon and Alibaba Group have begun to use it. The technological advancement of VR, motivated by its use in various domains like e-commerce, has driven the development of software tools like APIs which allow developers to easily develop applications for these devices. One of the latest technologies included in recent VR headsets is hand tracking, which allows users to use their own hands as an input method to interact with the virtual environment. However, software tools for the development of VR applications are not fully adapted to include accessibility options for people with motor difficulties in their bodies, making it very difficult for these people to use this technology with both controllers and hand tracking. To promote accessibility options in the use of VR shopping environments, this study will present the adaptation of a set of interaction mechanisms, among which we highlight: automatic object grabbing, release of grabbed objects, navigation through the environment, attraction of distant objects, and interaction with the shopping cart. These adaptations will be made using Meta's API for Meta Quest devices as a base. The adapted environment has been tested by healthy students from the faculty and one of them with reduced mobility in the left half of his body after suffering a stroke. In this paper, we present the feedback provided by the volunteers, as well as the verification that these interaction mechanisms meet our expectations. This is an essential previous step to carry out a planned experimental session with patients with spinal cord injuries and therapist at the National Hospital for Paraplegics in Toledo (HNPT).
Description
CCS Concepts: Human-centered computing → Virtual reality; Accessibility systems and tools; Social and professional topics → People with disabilities; Applied computing → Electronic commerce
@inproceedings{10.2312:ceig.20241143,
booktitle = {Spanish Computer Graphics Conference (CEIG)},
editor = {Marco, Julio and Patow, Gustavo},
title = {{Adaptation of Interaction Mechanisms in Virtual Reality Shopping Environments for People with Upper Limb Motor Difficulties}},
author = {Grande, Rubén and Herrera, Vanesa and Glez-Morcillo, Carlos and Reyes, Ana de los and Castro-Schez, José J. and Albusac, Javier},
year = {2024},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
ISBN = {978-3-03868-261-5},
DOI = {10.2312/ceig.20241143}
}