Wheelchair/Disabled Users

[whelanweb]

Hi Community

I got my rift a couple of weeks back and I have shown it to my father who works for a charity that looks after severely disabled people. He has asked me to bring the Rift over to his work place and give some of the people he cares for a Demo. He said that patients would really enjoy the feeling of freedom from their chairs even for a few brief moments.

I will be videoing their reactions ( with their permission of course ) and I will post it here. Can you ( the community ) give some recommendations of Demos that will last 3 - 5 mins that will give the users the feeling of walking. I really want an Avatar body shown with legs walking.

My plan so far for each user is

1. Blue Marble ( a good starting point )
2. Rift Coaster ( always gets a smile )
3. Unknown ( need suggestions )

I think the Tuscan Demo is good but no avatar body is shown. The best I can come up with at the moment is ( The Gallery ) Air Demo but some of the patients could be kids and I don't want to scare them.

I'll be using a wired XBox 360 controller as my input device.

I will be doing this in the middle of this month but I welcome all your comments. I plan to spend the full day at the hospital to give a good 15 - 20 miniuts of time to each person.

Again recommendations will need to be fairly child friendly. I have been to Cartoon World but again no avatar and it moves way to fast. I want something that will trick them into believing that they are in a real location walking.

[vinbrandht]

Hello Whelanweb,

I am a content producer for a video production company based in Portland, Oregon, working to develop a short documentary on the uses of the Oculus Rift alternative to traditional game design. We're looking to focus largely on the potential the device offers in the educational, therapeutic/medical and design fields.

Having discovered the Oculus Rift recently, and being new to Virtual Reality as a whole, this forum has been a wonderful resource and showcase for what the Oculus can provide, and thankfully led me to your entry. As of currently, I've not seen anyone else within the MTBS community attempt to do with the Rift what you have described and, as a proponent of the technology, I'm deeply fascinated to hear more about the results.

If you are interested, I would love to set up a time to talk with you. We aspire to bring this technology to a wider audience and I think your story is one that could be incredible to explore further.

Thank you for your time.

Tanner Notch
Content Producer | Cascadium Pictures
tnotch@cascadium.net

[whelanweb]

Hi Tanner

Thanks for getting back to me. I've just seen your reply. I will email you tomorrow when I get back to my office. Im in ireland so im unsure of when a good time to chat would be but i'll make sure im on Skype or Google Chat if need be.

My plan is to go to the hospital on the week starting the 23rd so I have a bit of time to go before I have content I can send onto you. I just looking into borrowing a better camera as I don't want to use my phone to film as it wouldn't look great.

[HeadTrip]

Your demo sounds great! I want to hopefully add disabled mode to my demos, no input needed besides head move.
Check out Greebles, its just that. http://www.headtripgames.com/virtual-reality.html

Really looking forward to your demo results!

[Lilwolf]

Do you have a hydra? Crashland is the best demo I've seen so far. But I'm not sure if they want to see aliens coming at them. But full body and arms.... and a cape!

[BOLL]

This sounds fantastic Looking forward to seeing reactions! I have put a few people inside the Iceland demo as a low-risk-for-nausea experience. It's pretty neat and only has head tracking so it's easy to enjoy.

Another demo that have been nice even though it was one of the early ones is Rift Racer, even though it's speedy people have been surprisingly fine in it.

Of course Proton Pulse is almost a standard feature now, a good intro to the headtracking and 3D depth, no big risk for nausea unless people sway or try to thrust with their head when hitting the ball.

[whelanweb]

@ Lilwolf
I dont have a Hydra unfortunately but thanks for the recommendition. I thing aliens coming at non gamers as a first VR experience would be a bit overload for them

@ HeadTrip
Love your Greebles demo I have seen it before. I'll try it with one of the users and post you the video.

@ Boll
Thanks for your comments. I have IRacing + Wheel instead of Rift Racer but im really looking for experiences that make the user feel like they are out of their chair. I'm thinning of Ocean Rift as its quite relaxing. I haven't tried Iceland yet but I will give it a go later.

At the moment my Demo reel for each patient is going to be

1. Blue Marble ( Easy First Demo )
2. Rift Coaster ( Always gets a smile )
3. A demo that makes them feel like their flying like superman ( Dragon VR is what im going with so far as its user controlled )
4. A demo that makes them feel like their walking ( with avatar body ) The Gallery is the best I can find so far but I want to put the user in a more realistic environment. Tuscny would be perfect but no avatar body for Xbox controller version.

At the moment I am provisionally down to do this Demo on Tuesday 24th of September. This date could change. I'll post a video as soon as I get it edited which would be a few days later as I have to do my regular job for the rest of the week. I'll give a forum response on the day however and let people know how we got on.

[shole]

great power is also a fun superman game
http://vrwiki.wikispaces.com/Great+Power

[whelanweb]

@ Shoel

Thanks so much. This demo is exactly what I wanted for a Flying like Superman Demo. I've also download the old Superman Theme. This makes the experience 1000 times better. If you are the demo creator you really must add the theme song. Its epic.

Some other bits I think that might go well in this demo ( for what its worth )

Adding flocks of birds and clouds and random rain events. This would increase the feel of speed when flying high above the buildings.

Making the demo with real time lighting effects ( going from night to day ) would also be great. This demo brought a smile to my face as I remember watching the original Superman movies as a kid and always wanted to fly.