Gurjit Jheeta Undergraduate Dissertation 2017/18

Using virtual reality to provide an experience of a football game for individuals with a sensory impairment.

Supervised by S.Maddock

Abstract

People with sensory impairments, such as autism, generally struggle to watch live sports due to the unpredictable environment. Recently, there has been a push to create sensory rooms that allow them to enjoy matches whilst staying calm and safe. This project is about creating a VR experience that is both immersive and safe for people. This involves filtering data received from a 360 degree camera stream to ensure that the content is safely watchable.

Through this project, a system was developed that is able to take in a video input, either live or pre-recorded, allow a user to intuitively define areas in that footage, and apply filters to these areas. The user was then able to view this filtered footage using a virtual reality headset. Both a controlled data set and a "live" captured footage data set of a football match were used for the evaluation. Based on both the self and user evaluation, it can be said that the software element of the system worked well, and achieved its main goal, however, there are aspects of data recording that need improving.