title: Effects of assembling virtual fixtures on learning a navigation task.
abstract: An approach to enhance navigation task performance is to integrate sensory guidance (virtual fixtures) into a virtual training system. To evaluate the effects of adding virtual fixtures to skill acquisition, 32 subjects were required to use a PHANToM input device, to transport a virtual object through a computer generated 3-D graphic maze. Subjects practiced navigation under 4 conditions: the maze was augmented with either a graphic fixture (G), attractive force field (F), both graphic and force field (GF), or no (N) virtual fixture. Fifteen practice trials were given before subjects were transferred to a situation with no virtual fixtures. Results showed that the implementation of the force field assisted task performance during practice; however, it failed to show positive transfer effects. In contrast, adding a graphic fixture to the virtual maze helped subjects to define the optimal pathway throughout navigation, which facilitated skill acquisition.
authors.affiliation: Schoosl of Kinesiology and Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, Canada.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuang
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Henigman
authors.forename: Shahram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Payandeh
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lomax
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Swanström
authors.forename: Christine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Mackenzie
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004501:Education, Medical; D006801:Humans; D009048:Motor Skills; D014584:User-Computer Interface