VESL's Experimental User Exertion System for VBS2

Australia - 12th October 2007

Recent work within the Virtual Environments and Simulation Laboratory (VESL), UNSW@ADFA (University of New South Wales, at the Australian Defence Force Academy) has led to an experimental user exertion system for VBS2. Fundamentally, the system requires the user to exert energy in order to move their in-simulation avatar: if they want their character to run they must "run".

The current system, hooked up to a stationary bike, is the work of Officer Cadet Chris Leedham, who is finishing the final year of his Electrical Engineering degree at ADFA. Employing a USB interface, and thus appearing as another human interface device to the computer (just like a keyboard or mouse) the system could actually be connected to a range of mechanical devices such as various gym equipment (e.g., a rotary walker).

The accompanying short video shows Chris on the bike and the correlation between Chris' rate of pedalling and the walk, jog, and run movement rates in VBS2.

"We're about to begin experiments with the system" says Dr. Spike Barlow, the laboratory director and sponsor of the project. "We'll be looking at subjective and objective measures of how play varies between a traditional mouse and keyboard control versus with the exertion system". Dr Barlow believes that the closer match to the real-world, in which soldiers become fatigued and tired as they carry out actions, will lead to a number of differences ranging from fire-and-movement through to tactics employed. "We'll have to wait for the data to know, but if nothing else its yet another alternate for maintaining fitness."

Chris' thesis will be published at the end of the year, while the full experimental results will likely be published at a scientific conference sometime in 2008. Those wishing more information should email Spike (spike at adfa dot edu dot au).

About Bohemia Interactive. Bohemia Interactive is an independent game development company, with studios in Czech Republic and Australia, founded in 1999, that focuses on developing state of the art computer software and the research of advanced real time 3D graphics, artificial intelligence and physical simulation technologies for real-time interactive environments. For more information about the company visit http://www.bistudio.com.

A comparison video of the interaction between the input system and a VBS2 entity is also available.