![](bg7.png)
Figure 10: Training Mode. Green arrows placed on the floor
guide the user to the exit.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this work, a VR fire warden training system has
been presented. Its main objective is to provide VR
experiences to fire wardens in order to internalize
and comprehend the concepts behind the standard-
ized procedures that have to be followed when a fire
emergency arises in a building. In our preliminary
developments, a few actions have been tested as they
target the main interactions within VR environments:
Navigation for evacuation routes and fire finding; Se-
lection and Manipulation to interact with the extin-
guishers and doors; and System Control interaction
to display non intrusive 2D information as a HUD.
All the actions have been developed as a combination
of gestures recognized with the aid of Leap Motion
Controller and keyboard/gamepad to navigate the 3D
environment.
The seated position has been defined as a require-
ment from the very beginning as it is the most com-
fortable way of interacting with the VR environment.
The stand-up position poses additional problems like
i) problems with the cabling, ii) collisions with the
real-world furniture and iii) anxiety regarding the
cognitive disassociation of the virtual position and the
real position, specially when stairs are included in the
scenarios. The seated position is also recommendable
if the interaction is going to last a long period of time.
More trials and validation of the VR setup is
needed. However, we have found that the election of
the keyboard or the gamepad is a matter of personal
preferences. In any case, we have reports about the
necessity to adapt the keys of the keyboard or buttons
of the gamepad to each personal preference.
Some users found some limitations in the VR nav-
igation. They report that turning commands conflict
with looking to the sides in the VR environment. Nev-
ertheless, it is a matter of time to get the users ac-
quainted with the navigation system.
As future work, the following prototype will ex-
periment alternatives to solve the problems reported
by the users. A more extensive evaluation will be car-
ried out.
The extension of the prototype to other users and
purposes is also under consideration. The presented
use case could be adapted easily to children in order
to show them basic information about what they have
to do when a fire emergency arises.
After the preliminary implementation, we are
planning to introduce a different use case, oriented to
the visualization of 3D models on the Web. This use
case is very different from the one presented in this
work and therefore, it will provide complimentary in-
formation about the VR techniques in a different VR
environment.
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