Rugby players worldwide could benefit from a new virtual reality training programme created at Queen’s Belfast University. Team members from Ulster Rugby have been working with researchers in the School of Psychology at Queen’s on a range of virtual training scenarios that test expert players’ perceptual skills.
Lead researcher in the project is Dr Cathy Craig said: “Immersing players in an interactive virtual reality provides an exciting new way of exploring and understanding human behaviour. “The advantages of this technology are that unlike playing a video game on a normal desktop computer, the rugby player or athlete is totally immersed in a realistic simulated environment. By presenting stereoscopic images in a head mounted display and tracking head movements, the user’s viewpoint is automatically updated giving a 360 degree virtual experience. This means that the user becomes totally absorbed in their virtual environment encouraging them to interact as they would in the real world.”
The players are fitted with a ‘backpack’ of sensors and don a helmet-like visor known as a head mounted display through which a series of 360 degree virtual scenarios are displayed. For the researchers this type of research provides valuable insight into expertise and how visual information is used in the decision making process.
Anyone wishing to view players using the equipment can log onto http://www.qub.ac.uk/virtualreality/projects/ulsterrugbyvideo.aspx
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