Comparative study of input devices for a VR mine simulation

It has been shown that virtual reality (VR) can be used to train mine workers for safety in critical situations [4]. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a virtual reality (VR) laboratory on its Pittsburgh campus. Currently, input devices for the system are an Xbox 360 game pad and an air mouse. Due to the high cost and added complexity of most 3D tracking systems, we wanted to first test to see if the mine safety application could benefit from an upgrade to a 6-DOF tracking system. Thus, we conducted a pilot study at Duke University's six-sided CAVE-type system, and collected performance and questionnaire data for three tasks (selection, navigation, and maneuvering) and three devices (gamepad, air mouse, 6-DOF wand). Results indicate that the wand allows users to complete tasks faster and is preferred by users. However, in certain situations its use led to more errors.