using immersive game-based virtual reality to …...tedious ﬁre-safety skills training for...

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Using immersive game-based virtual reality to teach fire-safetyskills to children

Shana Smith Æ Emily Ericson

Received: 23 April 2007 / Accepted: 18 February 2009 / Published online: 13 March 2009

� Springer-Verlag London Limited 2009

Abstract Virtual reality (VR) has been used both to

simulate situations that are too dangerous to practice in real

life and as a tool to help children learn. This study was

conducted as part of a larger more comprehensive long-

term research project which aims to combine the two

techniques and demonstrate a novel application of the

result, using immersive VR to help children learn about fire

hazards and practice escape techniques. In the current

study, a CAVE was used to immerse participants in a fire

scene. To improve the children’s motivation for learning

over prior VR fire-safety training methods, game-like

interface interaction techniques were used and students

were encouraged to explore the virtual world. Rather than

being passive viewers, as in prior related studies, the

children were given full control to navigate through the

virtual environment and to interact with virtual objects

using a game pad and a 6DOF wand. Students identified

home fire hazards with a partner and then practiced

escaping from a simulated fire in the virtual environment.

To test for improved motivation, a user study was com-

pleted. Results indicate that students were more engaged by

the new game-like learning environment and that they

reported that they found the experience fun and intriguing.

Their enhanced enthusiasm for what is relatively standard

fire-safety information demonstrates the promise of using

game-based virtual environments for vital but otherwise

tedious fire-safety skills training for children.

Keywords Virtual reality (VR) � Immersive � CAVE �Game based � Fire safety � Children

1 Introduction

Due to decreasing computer equipment costs and increas-

ing processor speed, computer simulations have become

more common over the last decade. Virtual reality (VR) is

one new and rapidly growing capability used for computer

simulations. As equipment capabilities have grown, the

applied uses of such technologies for education and train-

ing have become broader. In particular, VR allows full

submersion into a virtual environment. As a result, VR can

be used in training situations where it would be too dan-

gerous or logistically impossible to have users participate

in an actual event (Stansfield et al. 2005).

VR training reduces risk and improves logistics by

creating virtual environments in which trainees can prac-

tice realistic simulated hazard situations or scenarios. Users

typically wear head mounted displays (HMDs) and use

6DOF wands for navigation and interaction. Instructors can

initiate any of a series of emergencies, from separate

applications on desktop computers. Students are usually

graded, and they lose points whenever they initiate incor-

rect actions that would lead to injuries in a real world

environment.

For example, Kizil and Joy (2001) developed a system

to help prepare miners for dangerous situations that could

not be addressed through traditional training methods.

Haller et al. (1999) developed a similar system to train

refinery workers. VR has been used for training both

emergency first responders and their commanders. In Li

et al.’s study (2005), as many as six first responders could

participate in an emergency scenario while wearing HMDs.

S. Smith (&)

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

e-mail: [email protected]

E. Ericson

Raytheon Company, Waltham, MA, USA

123

Virtual Reality (2009) 13:87–99

DOI 10.1007/s10055-009-0113-6

Trainees made decisions based on instructions given by

their commanders.

VR has also been used in firefighter training systems.

Navy firefighters traditionally train on retired battleships.

Instructors create various types of fires, and the trainees are

asked to respond to the situations. However, using VR,

trainees can perform missions in virtual, rather than actual,

fire environments. Researchers found that trainees dem-

onstrate similar levels of learning, whether they train on an

actual ship or in a virtual environment. However, virtual

environments offer significantly less risk to the trainees

(Tate et al. 1997).

The studies cited showed that VR systems can be effec-

tively used to isolate trainees from dangerous risks during

hazard skills training. Moreover, Sulbaran and Baker (2000)

also showed that learners usually enjoy VR training more

than other traditional training methods and that they retain

knowledge gained from VR training longer than that gained

using other methods. As a result, VR hazard-skills training

has the potential to reduce risk, increase acceptance, and

improve effectiveness over prior training methods.

Recent related research has also focused on developing

more advanced technology for realistically modeling fires

in VR environments, for example, Sherman et al. (2007)

developed a simulation application to graphically illustrate

the spread of wild fires. However, they only focused on

technical aspects of software and hardware development.

They did not create or test any fire-safety training

applications.

VR has also been used to teach children about abstract

or difficult concepts. For example, Ohlsson et al. (2000)

developed a VR system which they used to communicate a

key learning concept: that the Earth is round. According to

the researchers, the concept can be hard for children to

grasp because all of their day-to-day experience with the

Earth apparently conflicts with this fact. In their system,

children worked in teams of two to collect objects on a

virtual asteroid. One child, within a CAVE, acted as an

astronaut on the face of the asteroid. The second child,

from an ImmersaDeskTM, acted as a mission controller.

The mission controller helped their teammate navigate on

the virtual asteroid. The study showed that, after training,

children could translate their experiences from the virtual

asteroid to the way they thought about the Earth.

In two studies, Roussou et al. (2004, 2006) developed a

virtual playground application to help children grasp

another difficult learning concept: comparing fractions.

Fractions with bigger numbers in the denominator are

actually smaller than those with smaller denominators.

However, the fact seems counterintuitive to young children.

To address the need, the researchers used a VR playground

paradigm in which they asked children to help several

animated characters locate and place playground equipment

based upon the fraction of the total playground area they

occupied. While there was no evidence that any concrete

learning took place, the researchers concluded that students

were given a new context in which to think about fractions.

In another example, Kaufman et al. (2000) designed a

VR learning application for older students. In a pilot study,

they then used the application to help students grasp dif-

ficult concepts in geometry. In their study, students wore a

HMD and viewed a virtual world. They used a pen inter-

face and buttons which were drawn on actual notebooks

which the users held in their hands. After the training, all of

the users in the pilot study expressed positive feelings

about the VR interface and about their confidence with the

geometrical concepts presented.

An example of a VR ‘‘sandbox’’ system is the NICE

project (Roussou et al. 1999). The system allowed children

to interact with a virtual garden. Children could plant

seeds, provide sunshine and water for their plants, and

watch the plants grow. The system allowed children to

experiment with different kinds of plants and with giving

the plants varying levels of water and sunshine.

Researchers found that the open-ended style of play which

they used engaged children and encouraged them to create

narratives to go along with their experience.

From the cited references, VR can be used to effectively

communicate key concepts to children in effective ‘‘sand-

box’’ learning environments. Other studies show that

games, in general, can be used as an effective means for

engaging children in material that they might otherwise

consider to be difficult or boring to learn. For example, in

prior studies, researchers have used games to teach children

how to protect themselves in the event of a fire and help

children learn to cross a street more safely (Padgett et al.

2006; Thomson et al. 2005).

In prior related studies, VR systems have been developed

specifically for children. However, none of the studies

focused on developing game-based immersive VR-based

fire-safety training systems. Some prior studies focused on

communicating key learning concepts, while others focused

on creating general ‘‘sandboxes’’ that allowed children to

freely explore pre-defined learning environments.

The current study combined findings from several prior

research areas and, based upon the findings, designed and

evaluated an interactive game-based VR fire-safety training

system for teaching elementary school children about fire

safety. The current study was completed as part of a larger

more comprehensive long-term research project which

aims to use immersive VR to provide effective high-risk

fire-safety training to children. In particular, the project

aims to (1) help children learn about fire hazards and (2)

practice escape techniques by immersing them in virtual

fire hazard and fire emergency situations. The two topics

were identified, by firefighters who are participating in the

88 Virtual Reality (2009) 13:87–99

123

project, as the two most critical aspects of fire-safety

training for children. The long-term project was motivated

by statistics which show that young children are one of the

most at-risk groups in fire hazard situations.

In an initial study (Ericson and Smith 2008), a virtual

environment was designed, built, and tested. The virtual

environment was designed as an immersive teacher–learner

environment. Firefighters who were participating in the

study served as instructors. One firefighter led a group of

children through a virtual house that had specific fire

hazards which the firefighter helped the children to iden-

tify. They also discussed how to eliminate the hazards. The

firefighter also triggered a simulated fire in the house and

then taught students how to escape from the fire.

Although results of training in the virtual environment

were positive, many of the children were frustrated by the

lack of interaction they had with the environment and some

lost interest or motivation during parts of the training

session. As a result, additional research was conducted

concerning how to design more-effective virtual-training

environments for children.

The goal of the current study was to increase learner

motivation, over prior methods used in the overall study,

while maintaining or enhancing learning about fire hazards

and fire-escape techniques. The method used to achieve the

current study goal was to use game-based VR techniques to

make fire safety fun and engaging to learn, while actually

helping children remember the steps they need to take to

save themselves and others if they ever find themselves in a

real fire emergency.

The paper is organized as follows. First, results from an

initial study of a first version of the system are presented

and ways that were identified to address initial study issues

are discussed. Then, the design of the second, more

advanced game-based system is described. A discussion of

the technical issues encountered during design of the sec-

ond system, design of a user study for the second system,

and results of the user study are given. Finally, a descrip-

tion of proposed future work is presented.

2 Initial study

In collaboration with the City of Ames, Iowa, Fire

Department, the researchers initially developed a CAVE-

based VR system for training children how to respond in

fire emergencies. The system was designed such that, in

which firefighters could lead children through realistic

simulated fire situations. The firefighters provided guidance

and instruction during the fire emergency simulations.

During initial system design, the researchers and fire-

fighters decided that the most important information for

children to gain from the proposed VR learning

environment was how quickly fire spreads and that

crawling low can help people escape from a burning

building.

As a result, a virtual house was built, which contained

several fire hazards and means for simulating a fire in the

house. During the simulation, children followed an adult

guide and a firefighter, as they walked through the VR

house. The adult guide ran the simulation using a handheld

6 DOF wand and the guide led both the firefighter and the

children along a prescribed path through the virtual house.

The firefighter described fire hazards, provided information

and motivation, and helped the children stay on task. At the

end of the simulation, a simulated fire was started and the

fire spread quickly through the house. The firefighter

showed children how to crawl out of the burning house, to

a safe meeting-place outside the house.

Initial study results showed that, while children learned

intended concepts well and that they enjoyed the new

technology more than prior fire-safety training methods,

such as books, lectures, or videos, in general, they were

also frustrated that they could not interact with the virtual

environment directly. Many of the children said that they

wanted to be able to actively explore the virtual house. A

study by Roussou (2004) also showed that simply viewing

a virtual environment did not keep children fully engaged.

Here, we addressed the issue by creating a second, more

advanced, game-based version of their virtual learning

system. In the new system, several improvements were

made to the user interface. In particular, ambient sounds

and a novel interaction technique, which engaged users in a

more active way, were both added.

3 Game-based system design

In the current study, several special concerns were addres-

sed during design of the more advanced system. In

particular, the investigators aimed to develop a system that

would both entertain children and, at the same time, provide

them with information about the important underlying

topic: fire safety. From the original initial study, the

investigators realized that it was important for the system to

be fun and accessible to young children, and, yet, not tri-

vialize the message. As a result, the investigators chose to

use a video game paradigm, while maintaining the original

VR environment, fire hazards, and fire simulation scenario.

Video games are now prevalent among children

(Mungai et al. 2002; Ketelhut et al. 2006). At the same

time, video games have also been shown to be an excellent

tool for learning. The promise of games for learning lies in

the facts that they are fun, they provide immediate feed-

back, and they allow users to experiment in a realistic

environment without real-world consequences.

Virtual Reality (2009) 13:87–99 89

123

3.1 Basic system components

Three primary open-source software libraries were used to

create the VR fire-safety training environment: VR

Juggler (http://www.vrjuggler.org/), OpenSceneGraph (http://

www.openscenegraph.com/index.php), and Open Physics

Abstraction Layer (OPAL) (http://ox.slug.louisville.edu/

*o0lozi01/opal_wiki/index.php/Main_Page). Using the

three libraries to develop the necessary software program

allowed the research effort to focus on the educational con-

tent and the methods used to enhance interaction, rather than

the low-level technical aspects of building the system.

3.1.1 Realistic smoke

The City of Ames Fire Department provided consultation

during design and development of the system. City of

Ames firefighters felt that, to carry the weight and impact

needed for realistic fire-safety training, it was crucial that

the system effectively mimic a real fire-situation.

The firefighters indicated that there were several

important aspects of their requirement. First, from the very

beginning of the fire, smoke had to be generated in a rea-

listic way. Second, the smoke needed to continue to fill the

room in layers from the ceiling, as it does in a real fire. In

addition, the whole process needed to happen very quickly,

since smoke can often fill an entire room in a matter of

seconds (Pehrson 2004). Finally, the smoke had to be dense

enough to obstruct the view of anyone who was standing in

its midst, so that the participants were forced to crawl if they

wanted to see where they were going. To handle the

requirement, particle systems were used to simulate smoke

in the virtual environment. As a result, the open-source

Particle Systems API was used to create smoke for the

system (www.cs.unc.edu/*davemc/Particle). The Particle

Systems API is thread safe, and it features an API which is

similar to that of OpenGL (McAllister 2000).

Each particle system is represented internally by an

array of points. To make the particles look like puffs of

smoke, a function was added to the particle handler class to

create each point in a given particle system as an OpenGL

quad. A smoke-texture map was mapped to each quad and,

as a result, a cloud of smoke could be formed. Figure 1

shows the result, layers of smoke that descend from the

ceiling.

3.2 Game development

The ‘‘game’’ which was developed was defined in two

distinct parts: a timed-hazard search and an evacuation

from a simulated fire event. The evacuation was the most

important part of the simulated experience, since it repre-

sented the actual physical-evacuation practice that users

got during the training exercise. Figure 2 shows an outside

view of the house model which was built. The red mailbox

was designated as the safe meeting-place where children

should go when they escaped from the house.

Randall and Jones (1993) showed that physically acting

out a procedure often makes it easier to remember, there-

fore, the investigators felt that the ‘‘game’’ should require

users to practice an actual physical escape, by crawling

from the fire scene. The most difficult part of trying to

achieve the goal, in the context of an interactive game, was

that, if done correctly, escaping from the fire had to take

place in less than a minute. To maintain realism and

training impact, the time limitation did not lend itself well

to an interactive VR game experience with any sort of

entertainment value. Therefore, the investigators added a

separate task to the VR game, a modified version of the

original search for fire hazards.

Fire department personnel stress fire-hazard training

with children because fire-hazard training generally helps

Fig. 1 Layers of smoke

Fig. 2 Completed house model


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http://www.vrjuggler.org/

http://www.openscenegraph.com/index.php

http://www.openscenegraph.com/index.php

http://ox.slug.louisville.edu/~o0lozi01/opal_wiki/index.php/Main_Page

http://ox.slug.louisville.edu/~o0lozi01/opal_wiki/index.php/Main_Page

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~davemc/Particle

keep them away from dangerous items which may hurt

them, such as candles, and help prevent a fire before it

starts. For example, both the National Fire Prevention

Agency (NFPA) and the United States Firefighters Asso-

ciation (USFA) maintain versions of a home-hazard search

on their websites for children. In this project, the hazard-

search game was developed from a list of common home-

fire hazards provided by the City of Ames Fire Department.

The following sections describe details of the game

development.

3.2.1 Navigation

One of the primary complaints from participants, during

the initial study, was that they wanted to explore the virtual

house on their own, rather than being passive observers in

the VR environment. Thus, in the second version of the

system, a gamepad was used for navigation. The gamepad

was an intuitive choice for navigation because gamepads

are a standard input method for video games.

In the new system design, the right analog stick of the

gamepad was used to rotate the players’ view and the left

analog stick was used to move forward, backward, side to

side, or in any combination of the given directions. Forward

was defined by the direction the player was facing when they

moved the left analog stick. The approach allowed users to

face any wall of the immersive environment without needing

to adjust the way they were using the gamepad.

Prior related research with games designed for education

showed that intended users often expect a great deal from

applications that are called ‘‘games’’, and that they are

often disappointed by the actual application (Elliott et al.

2002). As a result, the game-based version of the fire-safety

application was designed to be as interactive as possible.

The application allowed users to dynamically navigate

through the environment, which required some form of

collision detection that would prevent users from passing

through objects in the virtual environment.

To address the need, OPAL was integrated into the

visual simulation to create physical representations of all of

the important objects in the virtual environment. In the

active virtual environment, the user was represented by an

invisible sphere, subject to the effects of gravity, and their

movements were powered by an OPAL motor.

The terrain of the fire-safety environment was composed

of a single model which included the ground, the house,

and most of the furniture. As a result, the terrain, which

was very complicated, could not be represented by a full

object model.

For complex environments, OPAL users typically define

mesh objects, rather than full object models. In OPAL,

mesh objects are defined by an array of vertices and a

second array that maps vertices to mesh triangles. Mesh

objects with more vertices are more complicated; therefore

they still require more computational resources to compute

collisions for each display frame. As a result, overall,

simulation objects were simplified as much as possible. For

example, users were modeled as simple spheres.

3.2.2 Interface

To create a fun way to indicate hazards in the virtual

environment a user interface was developed using a 6DOF

wand. In the final design, users pointed the wand at an item

they wished to remove from the house. The wand included

a tracker that reported its orientation in the CAVE, and the

orientation information was passed to a physics simulation

which fired a ray in the direction the wand was pointing.

The ‘‘laser’’ technique is very popular for object selection

in 3D VR environments (Vanacken et al. 2007).

Figure 3 shows an example of children pointing at a fire

hazard in the CAVE environment. If a hazard model was

hit, meaning the first thing the ray encountered was a viable

hazard model, the hazard was marked as found and the

physics simulation reported the index of the discovered

hazard back to the visible simulation. The hazard model

was then removed and a sound was played to indicate

successful identification and removal of the hazard.

Another theme the investigators saw from the results of

the initial study was that many children were nervous about

entering the virtual environment. Many asked if they would

be able to bring a friend with them, with this in mind, the

interface was designed to accommodate, and in fact

required, two participants. Previous related studies have

also found that, if two children use an application together,

it is important that each has an important role to play, so

that they are forced to collaborate (Ohlsson et al. 2000).

As a result, the new fire-safety application was designed

so that one child played the role of a Navigator, and the

Fig. 3 Users zap a hazard in the VR game


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other child played the role of a Hazard Zapper. As a team,

they were responsible for removing all of the hazard

models in the house. To accomplish the task, the children

needed to communicate with each other to both find and

effectively eliminate all of the fire hazards. In addition,

they were never alone in the virtual environment, which

reduced their anxiety about the experience. However,

working together in the house, without adults, helped train

the children to handle the most-dangerous real fire situa-

tion, which takes place when adults are not present.

A heads up display (HUD) was added to the application

to provide users with information because, with the new

system, a firefighter was no longer with them in the envi-

ronment. The HUD displayed instructions and information

on the walls of the CAVE, so that the information was

accessible to the users, no matter which direction they were

facing.

3.2.3 Hazard search

Hazard removal presented a unique design challenge with

respect to information sharing. Each hazard had to be

represented by a visual model, which was removed when

the hazard was discovered by the users. Actual hazard

removal was not complicated, since most scene graphs

provide functionality for switching a node on and off.

However, in the new system, each hazard needed to be

physically represented, so the user could not pass through

the hazard until it had been removed from the environment.

Therefore, both the visual simulation and the physical

simulation needed to maintain a synchronized list of haz-

ards and update the list as hazards were removed.

3.2.4 Fire evacuation

Cooking fires in kitchens are the most common cause of

residential fires (United States Fire Administration 2002).

As a result, a smoking pan was added to the house model,

as one of the fire hazards. When time expired for the

hazards search portion of the simulation, the children were

instructed to find the kitchen. When they arrived at the

kitchen, a kitchen fire began at the stove and spread out

through the room. To create the effect, several particle

systems were used in tandem. First, a small system that

released puffs of smoke at large intervals was used to show

that food left on the stove was burning. Then a larger, faster

moving plume of smoke was used to show that a fire had

started. Once the smoke reached the ceiling of the room a

layer of animated smoke began to roll across the ceiling

away from the source of the fire. After the first layer of

smoke started, a fire alarm began to sound. One second

later, another layer of smoke started, and the process

continued until the final layer began.

When the lowest layer of smoke was approximately

3 feet from the ground, the CAVE switched into view-

dependent mode. In view-dependent mode, if the users

stood up, their viewpoint rose above the smoke ceiling and

they saw nothing but dark heavy smoke. However, if the

users crawled close to the floor, they could see their sur-

roundings and find a way to escape, as shown in Fig. 4.

Following their escape from the kitchen and house the

children were instructed to go to a pre-defined meeting

place. Having a meeting place was one of the most

important safety tips offered by fire fighters. Instructing

users to find a pre-defined meeting place encouraged them

to think about where a good meeting-place was outside

their own home, and the layered smoke reinforced the

concept that it is vitally important to crawl close to the

floor in a real fire situation. Figure 5 shows the HUD

instructions which were displayed after the children arrived

at the meeting place.

4 User study

To complete the proposed user study, a fire-safety training

course for children was developed. The training course

included elements that Fire Department personnel felt were

important in a useful fire-safety training course for children.

In particular, after the initial study, participating Fire

Department personnel felt that the VR training environment

should be used in addition to either video or personal contact

training with firefighters. As a result, the new course com-

bined both video and VR environment training. The new VR

training system aimed to enhance or reinforce prior training

methods, rather than to replace them. While, at the same

time, the VR training system aimed to improve user satis-

faction with VR fire-safety training and to improve overall

user motivation during the fire-safety training program.

Fig. 4 Fire evacuation


123

The simulation was run in a four-sided CAVE. The reso-

lution of the projectors used was 1,280 9 1.024 pixels, and the

refresh rate of the projectors was 96 Hz. The screen dimen-

sions were 120 9 90 for the front, left, and right screens, and

120 9 120 for the floor screen. The frame rate of the virtual

environment is application dependent. For our fire-safety

training system, the frame rate was set to approximately 40 fps.

4.1 Participants

Participants were drawn from area Boy Scout troops.

Results were analyzed for data collected from both a quiz

(see ‘‘Appendix 1’’) and a user-experience survey (see

‘‘Appendix 2’’) which were administered. Of the 22 par-

ticipants, one did not complete the survey, so only 21

survey data points were analyzed.

Table 1 shows the age distribution for participants in the

study. Their ages ranged from 7 to 11. Requirements for

participation included being able to read and write profi-

ciently and not having any prior VR fire-safety training

experience (e.g., the participants did not participate in the

initial study for the original system).

4.2 Training procedure

Children played the VR game in teams of two. Participants

were first given a tour of the VR system, so that they were

somewhat familiar with the technology being used. The

tour also provided an opportunity for discussion about how

the game worked and for explaining the user interface that

would be used during the training session. After the par-

ticipants saw the VR equipment, they were taken to a

classroom and a fire-safety pre-quiz was administered, to

gage the participants’ baseline levels of fire-safety knowl-

edge. Next, a video was presented, which showed a

firefighter giving a fire-safety presentation. The presenta-

tion was designed to give the children a framework for

thinking about the VR fire-safety application. After

watching the video, a short presentation was given, which

described, in detail, the user interface of the game system

and explained the objectives of the game.

Next, the control group, which consisted of 10 children,

took a post-quiz prior to using the VR application, while

the experimental group, which consisted of 12 children,

used the VR application first and then took the post-quiz.

Figure 6 shows a flowchart outlining the steps in the

training process. In Fig. 6, the experimental group process

is denoted by a dashed line and the control group process is

denoted by a solid line.

4.3 Experimental results

Results were analyzed for data from the pre-quiz, the post-

quiz, and the user-experience survey.

4.3.1 Pre- and post-quiz

The quiz used to measure the participants’ learning was

developed based on the main points communicated in the

fire-safety presentation, which the investigators created and

which the Fire Department presented. The quiz was com-

posed of five fill in the blank questions, five true or false

questions, and an open-ended section that asked students to

think of some fire hazards, and describe the first thing they

would do if they were in a room that was filling with smoke.

Students’ pre-test and post-test scores were recorded and

analyzed. The means of the pre-test and post-test scores are

shown in Fig. 7. Table 2 shows the results of a matched pair’s

Fig. 5 Children arrive at the meeting place

Table 1 Age distributionAge 7–8 9 10–11

Participants 8 4 9Fig. 6 Experimental process


123

test that was carried out on the general pre- and post-test data,

to search for significant improvements. Table 2 results show

that all students, taken as a single group, improved signifi-

cantly in measured fire-safety knowledge after training.

However, when considered as separate groups, there was no

significant difference in knowledge gained between the con-

trol group and the experimental group, as shown in Fig. 8.

4.3.2 User-experience survey results

The user-experience survey which was administered asked

participants to describe their experiences in the CAVE. The

survey asked participants to rank how frightened they felt

in the CAVE, on a scale of 1–5, with 5 indicating very

frightened. Next, the survey asked participants how much

they felt they had learned in the game, on a scale from 1 to

5, with 5 indicating the highest degree of learning. Finally,

the survey asked participants how easy it was to play the

game, with 1 indicating very hard and 5 indicating very

easy. Figure 9 shows distributions for the participants’

responses to the survey questions.

Analysis of results revealed a significant difference in

how frightened participants were in the virtual environ-

ment, based upon age, with 11-year-olds reporting

significantly less fear than 8-year-olds, as shown in

Table 3. However, age did not play a significant role in

learning and ease of use, as shown in Tables 4 and 5.

The final, open-ended, part of the survey used two

questions to ask for participants’ opinions about their most

and least favorite parts of the training process. There were

some obvious groupings in the responses to the two ques-

tions. Figure 10 summarizes responses to the question

concerning what participants’ liked best in the training

process. The most popular response was getting to play the

game. Figure 11 summarizes responses to what participants

liked least during the training process. Frustration over the

hazard zapping functionality was the most popular response.

There were also several responses indicating that partici-

pants felt dizzy or sick while using the VR application.

5 Discussion

The results indicate that the VR training system did not

affect short-term learning gains, in either a positive or

negative sense, during the training process. The result was

expected because the VR training system was used to

reinforce the fire-safety material covered by firefighters

during the video portion of the training program.

In addition, the quiz was designed to be short and simple

so that children between ages 8 and 11 could easily

Fig. 7 Mean scores for pre- and post-test

Table 2 Matched pairs: post-test and pre-test difference

Post-test scores 13.1364

Pre-test score 10.7727

Mean difference 2.36364

Std error 0.49911

Upper 95% 3.4016

Lower 95% 1.32567

N 22

Correlation 0.56167

t-ratio 4.735667

DF 21

Prob [ |t| 0.0001*

Prob [ t \0.0001*

Prob \ t 0.9999

Fig. 8 Mean scores organized by group


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complete it. As a result, some participants who scored very

well on the pre-test did not have much room for

improvement on the post-test. The limited range of the

instrument may have affected the results.

However, qualitative study results show that the game-

based VR training system did improve the children’s

satisfaction with VR fire-safety training and their overall

motivation for fire-safety training.

5.1 Zapping complications

Noise associated with the tracker hardware made it some-

times difficult to aim at fire hazards in the environment,

especially when pointing at objects that were far away from

the users or not at right angles to the direction the users

were facing. The imprecise targeting was frustrating for

users.

After the study was completed, the problem was fixed

by adding a visible box to the ray, which is used to check

for intersections. The box is used to both indicate, to the

user, the orientation and length of the ray and to check for

intersections. The improved approach allows for a certain

amount of error in the tracker readings on the wand, and

makes it easier for users to zap hazards.

Six participants said that the problem with hazard zapping

was their least favorite part of the whole training experience.

However, several students mentioned zapping as one of their

favorite parts of the training experience, demonstrating that

the interaction method is compelling to young users.

5.2 User experience observations

One surprising issue that was encountered was getting the

children to crawl in the virtual environment. The head

tracking software adjusted the camera view when the

Fig. 9 Distributions for survey

questions

Table 3 Statistical results

comparing fright and ageLevel Mean

7–8 A 3.6250000

9 AB 3.0000000

10–11 B 1.5555556


comparing learning and ageLevel Mean

10–11 A 4.2222222

7–8 A 4.0000000

9 A 4.0000000


comparing ease of use and ageLevel Mean

7–8 A 3.5000000

10–11 A 3.3333333

9 A 3.0000000

Fig. 10 Responses for ‘‘What did you like best about Fire Safety

Training?’’

Fig. 11 Responses for ‘‘What did you like least about Fire Safety

Training?’’


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Navigator knelt down, which allowed the children to see

below the layers of smoke that were formed. The investi-

gators believe that this capability of the virtual environment

makes it especially useful for training the particular skill,

however, many of the children were not used to this idea.

Even after they were instructed to get on their knees they

sometimes did not understand what to do. One child asked

‘‘How do I kneel?’’ This was an unexpected user-interface

issue. Apparently, children who are used to playing video

games expect to carry out activities within the game envi-

ronment without actually physically engaging in the

activity; the student who asked the question wanted to know

‘‘which button to press’’ to virtually kneel in the game.

Although the issue needs to be addressed, the issue shows

that immersive VR systems have a built-in capability for

higher levels of actual human–computer interaction than

traditional video games, which can increase capabilities for

truly ‘‘hands-on’’ training experiences.

Younger children reported feeling fear in the virtual

environment. The result indicates a greater level of realism

and immersion than traditional fire-safety training methods

and, therefore, a more powerful learning experience. As a

result, using immersive VR as a part of the training

experience may lead to greater learning gains over time for

younger children. The investigators did not want to trau-

matize children during the fire-safety training program;

however, a proper level of realism is necessary for safety

training. Younger children also had a greater problem with

feeling dizzy or with experiencing motion sickness.

In spite of the reported frustration associated with haz-

ard zapping, most of the users enjoyed the experience. All

participants were very excited when they were able to start

playing the game. Most remarked that it was just like being

inside a video game. Their increased enthusiasm for

learning relatively standard fire-safety information fulfilled

the primary goal of the study. The trainees’ enthusiasm

demonstrated the promise of VR for training vital skills

over other somewhat tedious methods.

6 Conclusions and future work

Fire safety is a difficult skill to evaluate because children need

to be able to reproduce correct behaviors under highly spe-

cialized fire situations. Demonstrating correct behavior in a

classroom setting does not necessarily translate to real-world

situations. VR applications show promise for providing the

means for training fire-safety skills, in a safe environment,

which might later be needed in dangerous situations.

In an initial related test, children indicated that they

wanted to be able to explore a virtual fire-safety training

environment on their own. To address the issue, a game-

based version of the fire-safety application was designed to

be playable without the help of an adult navigator, or a

firefighter. The second more-advanced version of the sys-

tem provided users with a more immersive experience and

made them active participants in the learning process.

However, with the new system, students were alone,

without firefighters, in their process of learning appropriate

fire-safety procedures. For example, students themselves

had to learn that crawling low would help them see.

On the other hand, the open nature of the VR facility

seemed to allow and encourage children to talk to other people

in the room. Children often asked their parents and others

questions while they navigated in the VR environment. The

uncontrolled interaction may have skewed test results, but

may also have added to the users’ learning experiences.

From project results, the investigators demonstrated that

immersive VR systems have a built-in advantage over prior

fire-safety training methods for children. They allow

children to experience realistic virtual ‘‘hands-on’’ and

‘‘on-site’’ experiences for high-risk safety training, which

cannot be achieved through lectures or regular video

games, e.g., how to kneel down or crawl in a fire situation.

In addition, study results show that game-based VR sys-

tems increase children’s motivation over more traditional

teacher–learner forms of VR-based instruction, which was

the primary goal of the study.

The results indicate, as have other related studies, that

emerging VR capabilities may help create a new paradigm in

learning: highly interactive, experiential, virtual-learning

environments that can augment, enhance, or possibly replace

traditional teacher–learner methods based upon lectures and

videos. Learners apparently prefer the new learning paradigm.

As a result, as in the current study, future teachers may

actually become virtual-learning system designers rather

than lecturers and their main efforts may be focused on how

to design their knowledge and teaching abilities into effec-

tive learning systems that both engage and motivate learners.

Study results also indicate that age of learners impacts

system design needs. With respect to fire-safety training for

children, users with age differences of as little as a few

years apparently require different learning environments.

In the current study, younger children reported more fright

than older children. As a result, different fire simulations

might be needed to allow adjusting experience intensity

and realism for different age groups.

Different forms of learning evaluation are also needed.

Younger students had a more difficult time completing the

study quiz, and they became more frustrated with the forms

that they had to fill out as part of the study. For younger

children, one-on-one interviews might be a more effective

evaluation format because written self expression might

still be difficult for them.

In addition, the simplicity of the quiz, which was deve-

loped for the youngest users, may have prevented measuring


123

any additional learning gains that may have been achieved by

reinforcing video training with VR training. The retention

rate of fire-safety knowledge due to the VR training com-

ponent, versus traditional classroom video and/or personal

interaction training techniques need further study, as well.

The extent to which traditional learning methods can be

replaced, rather than augmented or enhanced, by virtual

learning environments needs to be determined.

In the future, the potential for using intelligent agents,

which act as training guides, also needs to be explored. Other

game-like elements could also be improved, to include more

hazards and to make hazards and hazard placement more

dynamic, so that different hazards would appear in different

locations on successive runs of the program. The improved

functionality could make the game more interesting for

repeated training, since users would not know all the hazards

and where they were located in the training environment.

Fire safety is a difficult skill to test in children because they

may never need the skills. However, if children do find

themselves in a fire emergency they are typically either pre-

pared or they are not. The investigators believe that the

children who participated in the program are better prepared in

the event they experience a fire situation in their home. As a

result, the study and the study results present a significant gain

and step toward improved fire-safety training for children.

Appendix 1

Fire Safety Quiz

Directions: Complete each sentence. 1. What is the most common type of household fire? ___________________

2. _______________ is the time of day when most cooking related fires happen.

3. It is important that you have working _______________ detectors in your home.

4. Most house fires take place in the ____________________.

5. Never use the ____________________ to go downstairs during a fire.

Directions: Read each statement. Decide which statements are true and which statements

are false.

T F 1. You should have an escape plan, but it is okay not to practice.

T F 2. Your family should have a meeting place a safe distance from your home.

T F 3. It is important to know how to operate all windows and doors in your house.

T F 4. It is okay to only know one way out of a room in your house.

T F 5. Floor coverings can help you navigate in a room filled with smoke.

List 5 examples of fire hazards.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

If you are in a room that is filling with smoke what is the first thing you should do?


123

Appendix 2

Fire-Safety Training Survey

1. Gender

Girl Boy

2. What is your age?

3. Did you ever feel frightened while in the fire scenes in the CAVE? (1: not at all; 5: a lot)

1 2 3 4 5

4. How much do you think you learned about fire safety during this program? (1: nothing at all, 5: a lot)

1 2 3 4 5

5. How easy was it to use the VR application? (1: very hard; 5: very easy)

1 2 3 4 5

6. What was the most important thing you learned in the fire safety training program today?

7. What did you like the most about fire safety training in the CAVE?

8. What did you like the least about fire safety training in the CAVE?

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