Development of wheelchair experience system and spatial recognition in virtual environment

We describe in this paper a wheelchair experience system with which an ordinary person can experience the situation of the handicapped. The system was created with the wheelchair moving in a virtual reality (VR) space. Two moving methods of manual wheelchair and electric wheelchair, respectively, were realized. Three basic experiments on the spatial recognition about the distance and direction in a virtual environment were carried out and the results were discussed. It was further recognized that the force feedback in the wheelchair is also important and should be taken into account for the system improvement.