VR education and rehabilitation

was originally developed by the military in the 1960s to help train pilots. This was useful because in VR, dangerous situations could be simulated without risking personal injury or loss of expensive equipment. Understandably, the technology was very expensive even by current standards. The military continues to use this technology for a wide range of training activities including teaching personnel to operate tanks and submarines in combat situations. More recently, the entertainment industry has begun to embrace VR as a means to provide users with exciting, fully interactive 3D game scenarios. This development is made possible by the availability of powerful new technology that becomes more affordable every day. Our interest in VR technology is not driven by its availability or affordability—of course, we could not have embarked upon our recent work in the absence of these adventitious conditions. Our work stems from the needs of disabled children to acquire skills to function independently in the world. Our initial attempt to use this technology focused on teaching children how to operate motorized wheelchairs. More recently, our interests have expanded to include using VR technology in science education. In 1982 we began a program to teach children with cerebral palsy how to operate motorized wheelchairs. This was, in effect, a driver's education program intended to teach children how to operate a type of vehicle as safely and as independently as possible. We used actual wheelchairs and, during instruction, we worked with the kids in relevant real-world situations—bathrooms, living rooms, and inclined sidewalks. Training focused on teaching skills such as going straight, turning right and left, maneuvering backward, and stopping before hitting obstacles. Every effort was made to teach skills in context to minimize the possibility that skills would not transfer from the training environment to the real world. The work was difficult and frequently unsuccessful. Beyond the usual sensory-motor impairments generally associated with cerebral palsy, we seemed to be facing other limiting factors that diminished or even precluded progress. For example, a lack of motivation was frequently a problem. Granted, it is not always easy or fun to complete a drivers' education program, but we would have expected the children to work hard to succeed because of the importance of the goal: we were trying to provide them with independent mobility; an essential ingredient of everyday life. Unfortunately, as we discovered this goal was not always shared by the children. In …