Study of Human Locomotion using Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality Ground Plane

We used a novel method for the study of visually guided walking over complex terrain in a laboratory setup. A ground-plane is projected upon a physically flat laboratory floor using a 3D projector similar to what we see in a 3D movie theatre. The perception of the 3D projected obstacle is reinforced with first tracking the view pose of the subject and second with the use of shutter glasses. We also record subjects foot placement using the motion capture system in order to investigate their gait cycle and kinematics.

VR Latency Measurement

A high-speed video of the real white disc with motion capture markers is shown on the right. On the left the VR equivalent of the whit disc is shonw on a CRT monitor. By comparing the physical movements of a motion captured disc vs its virtual counterpart we calculated the average end-to-end latency of the system. This is critical in any VR system since the system lag above 40-50 ms can cause sever perceptual side effects on the subjects.

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Collision Detection Latency

We use the same technique in order to measure the latency in collision detection for our walking study. Here you see the same technique using high-speed camera along with synchronized sound. From the time the obstacle is collided with the motion capture marker at the tip of the shoe until the sound in the speaker is heard is measured as the end-to-end latency of our AR walking study.

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AR Game!

At PerForM lab there are opportunities to play games in VR/AR. Here, Vic is trying to hit the box while Rahul is making sure his projection area is well calibrated. Except the shadow which seems to be an inevitable issue in our setup, this is actually a very immersive experience. We also discussed the addition of a haptic feedback to make it even more realistic.

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