Assessment of Input Modalities for Control and Accessibility in Fully Immersive Virtual Reality Educational Game

Educational video games need to be fully accessible and inclusive. Fully immersive virtual reality (VR) must consider and address the needs of diverse user groups. In this paper, we propose to assess user performance, task completion and input modality preferences for a range of different gameplay modes, in either a standing or sitting position, in the educational game “Numbers and Letters”. We assess the performance and usability of three input modalities: 1) a hand laser pointer for pointing and a trigger for selection, 2) a head laser pointer for pointing and a trigger for selection, and 3) a head laser pointer and a dwell time for selection, then assess differences in user performance between the sitting and standing positions for these three input modalities. The analysis was carried out with 14 users. The most preferred input modality was the hand laser pointer in the sitting position. The results stress the need to develop multimodal VR games where users can determine the way they interact with the environment.