Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

Program: Human & Computer Interaction
Degree: Master of Science
Major Professor: Nir Keren
Office Address: Off Campus
Office Phone: Off Campus
Email: nelsonkjiastate.edu
Research Topic: Safety Training in a Virtual Reality Setting
Website: http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/~nelsonkj/

My topic is safety training in a virtual reality setting. Virtual Reality introduces a safe environment to investigate human response and behavior to hazardous situations. This research will review works related to utilization of virtual reality toward risk reduction and loss prevention. It will also introduce methods to measure the level of stimuli that VR produces using biological indicators. Is it possible that virtual reality is the solution to create the training environment that the industry is so desperately wishing for?

This research will explain the need for enhanced safety training and research due to the variety of occupational safety hazards. The virtual reality environment can help researchers determine what visual cues of potential danger affect the test subject’s behavior and response. The conclusions of this research can then be used to enhance occupational safety training, by establishing ‘real-life’ stimuli in a hazardless environment.

The details of the research proposal will include the steps of devising potential safety hazards for a virtual reality setting, methods of conducting testing, measuring the results of subject stress, tracking the outcomes, and using the results to enhance safety training. This method of research will allow potential occupational safety hazards to be exposed to the test subjects without any chance of harm. Since this cannot be tested in reality, using this type of training can give researchers insight that they cannot obtain in any other type of testing.