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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/M05416/01
Title: DEVELOPMENT OF A WHEELCHAIR VIRTUAL REALITY MOTION PLATFORM FOR USE IN EVALUATING WHEELCHAIR ACCESS
Principal Investigator: Conway, Professor BA
Other Investigators:
Grant, Professor MH Granat, Dr M Maver, Professor T
Granat, Dr M Grant, Dr M
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Pre Nexus Migration
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Organisation: University of Strathclyde
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 February 1999 Ends: 30 September 2001 Value (£): 120,002
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Building Ops & Management Design & Testing Technology
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
The Disability Act 1995 Aims to end discrimination against disabled people. Importantly, the Act gives the disabled community new employment and access rights. Central to these rights will be an obligation for employers and organisation to provide premises which do not disadvantage disabled people. Many disabled people rely on wheelchairs for mobility. However, many buildings do not provide conditions suited to the needs of wheelchair users. This application aims to provide instrumentation allowing wheelchair navigation within virtual buildings. The provision of such instrumentation will aid architects in identifying the needs of wheelchair users at the design stage. Using existing specialist virtual reality resources we intend to construct a motion platform which will form a key component within an immersive virtual reality facility. Central to this project is the need to provide a platform that can accommodate a range of wheelchair types, that will map intended wheelchair motion into a virtual world and that has the capacity to provide feedback to the user reflecting collisions and changes in floor surfaces and slope. The project represents a collaborative effort between architects, bioengineers and user groups and will be comprised of stages related to platform design, construction, interfacing, testing and user evaluation.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Summary
Date Materialised
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Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.strath.ac.uk