Virtual Humans for Teaching Patient Assessment

 

 

The goal of this research is to develop a computer-based educational tool for Occupational Therapy students learning client evaluation techniques. The software is dialog-based and allows the student to interact with a virtual client. Students carry out an evaluation, following the appropriate procedures and assessing both the client’s physical and emotional state as they proceed. Students’ actions are saved to a file for instructor and self evaluation of their performance. The software is being developed using the Source® game engine SDK developed by Valve™.

Our software utilizes the Source® game engine SDK developed by Valve™ , which provides virtual humans that may be programmed for both body and facial movements. Tools are also available to create and view models, to manipulate and program facial expressions, to interactively trigger behaviors of characters based on user actions, and to create 2D graphical interface components such as menus. Graphical models and skeletal animations may also be developed using software such as DiscreetÔ 3DSMAXÒ and imported into system. We have used these tools to create a virtual client within an OT clinic environment. The virtual human model used was included with Half-Life 2.. Using this figure as our base model, we have implemented an OT client who has suffered a stroke that has impaired movement on his right side (an L-CVA.) The student is presented with a menu of choices for interacting with the patient, when the student has made a selection, his choice is saved to file and the virtual client responds. Client responses are animated and vocal and the patient may respond differently, depending on what the student chooses to do.