A wearable sensor network for the control of virtual characters

A wearable sensor network is developed to track the human joint motion with high accuracy. One sensor unit consists of an accelerometer and a miniature linear sensor. We design one motion-based interface based on the wearable sensor network, in which users can control the virtual characters in both a video game and an online virtual environment (Second Life) by moving their wrists and knees. Based on the analysis of the situation awareness and the failure of task during the game playing, the results of the task performance on controlling the virtual characters indicated that the motion-based interface provided better control than the keyboard interface.