- The paper systematically reviews immersive virtual reality serious games for evacuation training and research, highlighting their development, implementation, and effectiveness.
- IVR serious games demonstrate superior efficacy over traditional methods, enhancing knowledge retention and behavioral responses through realistic emergency simulations and improved engagement.
- Practical applications include safe simulation of hazardous conditions and scalability, while future research should address diverse emergency scenarios, motion sickness, and training for children.
Immersive Virtual Reality Serious Games for Evacuation Training and Research: A Comprehensive Review
The utilization of immersive virtual reality (IVR) in conjunction with serious games (SGs) represents a burgeoning field in emergency evacuation training and research. This paper by Feng et al. conducts an extensive systematic literature review to elucidate the development, implementation, and effectiveness of IVR SGs tailored towards building evacuation preparedness. The literature review synthesizes existing studies to propose a conceptual framework integrating key elements crucial for IVR SG development, encompassing pedagogical, behavioral, and environmental considerations.
Key Findings and Theoretical Implications
A predominant theme in the reviewed literature is the superior efficacy of IVR SGs over traditional training methods, such as evacuation drills or static instructional materials. IVR SGs enhance cognitive engagement and retention through immersive environments that simulate realistic emergency scenarios, enabling participants to acquire critical evacuation knowledge and behavioral insights. This review identifies that traditional methods often fall short due to lack of engagement and individualized feedback, as well as their inability to create realistic emergency conditions.
The paper underscores two principal impacts of IVR SGs: pedagogical and behavioral. The pedagogical impact focuses on knowledge acquisition and retention, positively influencing participants' abilities to internalize and recall evacuation protocols. Various studies within the review demonstrate that IVR SGs yield improved spatial and procedural knowledge compared to traditional safety cards or videos. The behavioral impact, on the other hand, emphasizes understanding human actions during emergencies. By collecting and analyzing behavioral data, researchers can validate evacuation models and understand decision-making processes under duress.
Quantitative Results and Empirical Evidence
Empirical evidence from the paper supports the efficacy of IVR SGs. The paper highlights studies where IVR SGs lead to substantial improvements in knowledge retention, with one significant finding being the maintenance of knowledge one week post-training. Moreover, participants trained using IVR SGs performed better in terms of hazard awareness and evacuation decision-making than those trained by other methods. Such numerical results reinforce the practical significance of these training tools.
Practical Implications and Contributions to the Field
Practically, the use of IVR SGs in evacuation training presents an advantageous approach to preparing building occupants for emergencies. These systems provide a scalable and flexible training platform, potentially reducing the costs and logistical constraints associated with traditional drills. Importantly, IVR SGs also allow for the safe simulation of hazardous conditions not feasible in real-life drills, such as dense smoke or structural collapse, thereby broadening the scope and realism of evacuation training.
Future Research Directions
Despite the promising findings, the paper addresses certain limitations and proposes avenues for future research. One limitation is the relatively narrow focus on fire evacuation scenarios, with sparse studies exploring earthquake evacuations. Future research could expand on this and examine diverse emergency settings to generalize IVR SG applications across various contexts. Furthermore, there is a call for more studies investigating motion sickness induced by different navigation methods in IVR environments—a challenge that must be overcome for wider adoption in practical settings.
The authors also highlight a research gap in studying children's evacuation training. Given the distinct cognitive and emotional responses of young individuals compared to adults, developing age-appropriate IVR SGs for children could significantly enhance emergency preparedness in educational settings.
Conclusion
In summary, this systematic literature review provides a detailed examination of the state-of-the-art in IVR SGs for evacuation training. The proposed conceptual framework serves as a valuable guide for researchers and developers aiming to harness the full potential of IVR technology in educational and behavioral interventions. As the field progresses, addressing identified gaps and technical challenges will be imperative to fully realize the capabilities of IVR SGs in improving emergency preparedness and response strategies.