Developing a visually impaired older people Virtual Reality (VR) simulator to apply VR in the aged living design workflow

摘要

In the context of the rapid development of the computer visualisation technology, some advanced visual applications based on Virtual Reality (VR) has been widely used in military, medical, design and various of other professional fields. In Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries, VR as an innovative visualisation tool can create realistic Virtual Environment (VE) to architects or engineers, which help them detect problems in projects intuitively. Therefore, VR is a desirable tool to simplify the workflow in the AEC industry. However, applications of VR in the architecture design industry is still at presenting design result stage and has not been applied in the design process, due to the limitations of technical conditions of VR. Although the mainstream VR technology in AEC can provide a virtual environment that almost close to the real environment, VR should focus more to simulate the human actions or real conditions rather than focus on the quality of the rendering. In architecture design for older people, architects can intuitively understand the conditions of the elderly via using VR technology. Here we show a visually impaired old people VR simulator, and the efficiency and effectiveness of the simulator will be evaluated with real projects. We found that some image processing software or 3D game engines can accurately simulate the visual impairment of the elderly in a VR environment. However, in the architecture design industry, it is difficult for designers to use 3D game engines to complete simulation in the design process, because of the complex simulation process. Therefore, this study will develop a simulator that is simple to use to help architects simulate visual impaired older people in their projects, which can help them design a more reasonable product. This study will base on architecture design consulting company Marchese partners (MP) serving for the elderly. The simulator will be developed and tested in their VR studio, and their projects and design workflow will be used as case studies to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the simulator.