VR-Kids: Understanding Risk Management in Children’s Play and Active Travel using Virtual Reality
The Team: Dr Emiliano Mazzoli, Professor Lisa Barnett, Associate Professor Jenny Veitch, Alethea Jerebine, Associate Professor Thuong Hoang, Dr Deepti Aggarwal, Professor Stefan Greuter, Theresa Heering
The development of skills in childhood for managing risky situations and avoiding injuries is poorly understood. Understanding how children assess and handle risks can inform active transport guidance, injury prevention interventions, and schools regarding the provision of equipment/policies around play. There are ethical challenges with research that puts children in real-life situations that could result in injury. The Norwegian collaborators on this project developed a Virtual Risk Management (VRM) system to overcome this challenge using virtual reality. This study aims to develop a collaboration between Faculties to pilot test the VRM system in 30-40 Australian children aged 10-12 years.
The team: This project is led by Dr Emiliano Mazzoli of the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) in the School of Health and Social Development. He is an expert in children’s physical activity and executive functioning (relevant to decision making) and has expertise in motor competence assessment. Also at IPAN, Professor Lisa Barnett is the leading researcher in the world in motor skills and Associate Professor Jenny Veitch is an expert in children’s physical activity relevant to parks and recreation. Alethea Jerebine is in the final stages of her PhD (supervised by Professor Barnett) and has produced the first international policy analysis on risk and play in schools and the first Australian data on parental attitudes to risky active play.
Based in the School of Information Technology, Associate Professor Thuong Hoang works on interaction techniques and devices, human factors, and educational technologies, and Dr Deepti Aggarwal has expertise in technologies like virtual reality (VR) and wearables to tackle real-world issues. They will lead the analysis of the VR and eye tracking data along with Professor Stefan Greuter, Director of Deakin’s Motion Lab, who has experience in designing VR experiences and natural user interactions within virtual worlds. Theresa Heering, based in the School of Health and Social Development, is in the final stages of her dual PhD and will lead sensor data processing using MATLAB.