PhD Defense: Human Gait in Virtual Reality: Analyses & Changes of Gait during Locomotion in Immersive Virtual Environments

17 January 2020

Abstract:Bipedal walking is generally considered to be the most natural and common locomotion technique for humans in the physical world, and the most presence-enhancing form of locomotion in virtual reality (VR). However, there are significant differences in the way people walk in VR compared to their walking behavior in the real world. Consequently, this work focuses on three aspects: (i) analyses and evaluation of the differences in gait parameters between a real and virtual environments across generations, i.e., healthy younger and older adults. (ii) Analyses of changes in velocity over time while walking within virtual and the real worlds with and without additional cognitive task. (iii) Developing different virtual walking manipulation techniques to overcome the pathological spatial asymmetry of Parkinson’s disease patients with respect to step length.

Monday, 17 January 2020, 15:00, Seminar Room G102, Informatikum, Hamburg

Speaker: Omar Janeh, Informatics Dept., Univ. Hamburg