Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to interact in order to support activities that they value. Thus, a floor-based touch
surface might be most appropriate in areas of human-machine interaction where
foot-operated controls or interfaces are already commonplace. Many examples exist
in manufacturing, transportation, or medicine. A virtualized display in such settings
might be used to provide access to instrumentation or machine controls in ways that
can adapt to a range of different tasks (e.g., to different dental procedures). Such an
approach may, for example, be able to overcome problems with physically embodied
foot controllers, such as the overabundance of physical foot pedal controls in medical
interactions [
41
].
Another potentially relevant application of computational interfaces integrated in
floor surfaces may be for the purpose of enhancing pedestrian navigation, or for pro-
viding interactive maps or other geospatial data visualizations related to a space or
dataset that is being navigated immersively. In such cases, movement on foot may be
seamlessly integrated as a means of virtual navigation. Previous researchers have uti-
lized context-based interactive maps or ambiently represented menus in applications
such as architectural walkthroughs or training simulations [
19
]. Other relevant appli-
cation fields could include entertainment, music performance, gaming, or advertis-
ing, where companies such as Gesturetek (Fig.
17.2
) and Reactrix have successfully
commercialized interactive, floor-based visual displays for marketing purposes.
Although most potential applications, like those noted above, are either emerging,
or remain to be defined, a few conceptual scenarios may be helpful toward further
motivating the discussion in the sections that follow:
•
A walkway provides ecologically based tactile, acoustic, and visual feedback sim-
ulating the response that is felt and observed when walking on ice, earth, or snow
in order to aid patients with gait disorders in readapting to walking in challenging
conditions. The associated virtual environment may also serve as a tool that is used
to assess the extent to which different sensory cues can affect locomotion strate-
gies, aiding clinical researchers in identifying potentially beneficial rehabilitation
programs.
•
A multi-function, reconfigurable operating room in a future medical facility is
equipped with a virtual floor controller that allows doctors or their assistants to
access the controls of instruments needed during a certain medical procedure
without requiring the physical rearrangement of foot pedals or other physical
interface devices.
•
An immersive virtual environment that is presented on several walls surrounding
its users displays data corresponding to the allocation of geospatial resources.
This data can be navigated via a floor-based map interface that is operated via the
feet. In another scenario, students at a remote location might use such an interface
to navigate the streets of a site of special historical interest, such as Pompeii
(captured through photographic data), or its virtual reconstruction, presented as a
three-dimensional virtual world.
