Training for Physical Tasks in Virtual Environments: Tai Chi

We present a wireless virtual reality system and a prototypefull body Tai Chi training application. Our primarycontribution is the creation of a virtual reality system thattracks the full body in a working volume of 4 meters by 5meters by 2.3 meters high to produce an animated representationof the user with 42 degrees of freedom. This - combined with a lightweight (< 3 pounds) belt-worn videoreceiver and head-mounted display - provides a wide area,untethered virtual environment that allows exploration ofnew application areas. Our secondary contribution is ourattempt to show that user interface techniques made possibleby such a system can improve training for a full bodymotor task. We tested several immersive techniques, suchas providing multiple copies of a teacher's body positionedaround the student and allowing the student to superimposehis body directly over the virtual teacher. None of thesetechniques proved significantly better than mimicking traditionalTai Chi instruction, where we provided one virtualteacher directly in front of the student. We consider the implicationsof these findings for future motion training tasks.