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Computer Research Institute of Montreal

The Computer Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM) is a leading expertise center in the fields of information technology and artificial intelligence. In partnership with the Nazareth and Louis Braille Institute for the blind, CRIM launched a research and development (R&D) project to study the potential of virtual reality (VR) as a tool for vision rehabilitation training.

Upon graduation from the Master’s program, I began working as a Virtual Reality Researcher / Level Designer at CRIM. In this role, I helped develop an innovative virtual reality application to assist the rehabilitation of visually impaired people.

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3D immersive virtual environment for visual rehabilitation
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Environnement virtuel immersif 3D pour la réadaptation visuelle
Specifications

Position: VR Researcher / Level Designer
Team: Computer Vision and Imaging
Tenure: October 2016 – March 2018

My tasks
  • Design level (from 2D plans to 3D greyboxes).
  • Write and maintain game design documents.
  • Create 3D models (3D modeling, UV, texturing).
  • Integrate 3D models, animations and effects.
  • Design user interface for mobile app.

Vision rehabilitation

When a person becomes visually impaired, intensive rehabilitation is required to learn the skills necessary to navigate the world.

Through Orientation and Mobility (O&M) rehabilitation training, visually impaired people can learn strategic use of their residual vision and how to accurately interpret auditory cues relating to their environment.

Virtual reality has great potential to improve O&M training. It can provide a safe and rich space for rehabilitation by rendering a complex sensory environment. It can also stage challenges that would otherwise be too risky or too stressful in the real world.

Phase 1: CAVE

The team built an immersive virtual reality installation (CAVE) to help specialists train visually impaired people how to orient themselves according to traffic, which is the first step in an O&M outdoor rehabilitation training. The CAVE is a cubic room, rigged with projectors and speakers, that displays a 3D simulation of an urban street on its left, right, and back walls.

This simulation does not cover all aspects of O&M outdoor training but enables four tasks to be mastered indoor before going out in the real world: (1) detecting the direction of incoming/outgoing sounds of vehicles, (2) evaluating the distance between oneself and the vehicles, (3) positioning oneself parallel or perpendicular to traffic, and (4) approaching traffic safely.

Phase 2: Mobility

For the following phase of the project, we devised a new solution to afford the trainee a greater mobility and immersion. Equipped with a HTC VIVE VR headset, a backpack computer and headphones, the trainee was able to physically move — their position being tracked by multiple HTC base stations.

The level was expanded from one urban street to an entire neighborhood. The tablet app was completely redesigned to improve its usability and provide additional functionalities. A real-time day/night and weather system was implemented allowing O&M trainers to dynamically customize the environmental conditions of the level.

Level design

Throughout the project, the level evolved from one single street to a whole neighborhood.

As the level designer on the project, I designed the neighborhood level around four different styles of streets: a suburb street, a quiet city street, a noisy downtown street, and a boulevard.

Intersection crosswalks being the most chaotic and stressful environment to be faced in outdoor O&M training, the level featured simple to complex crossing situations for the trainee to practice.

3D modeling

I took charge of the 3D modeling of all the buildings in the level as well as the integration of the 3D models in Unity.

Special attention was given to the exact measurements of streets, lanes and sidewalks in order to depict urban settings with accuracy and realism.

For optimization purposes, LODs had to be made for some of the more detailed 3D models (like cars).

UI/UX design

Following user feedback, I completely revamped the user interface of the tablet app to improve its usability and provide additional functionalities. I first planned out the wireframes on paper and then made the UI in Unity.

Using the tablet app, the O&M trainer can:

  • Customize time of day and weather
  • Choose what types of vehicles circulate
  • Change traffic volume and speed of vehicles
  • Teleport the trainee to a different viewpoint
  • Add parked vehicles along the streets
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