Research Project Summary

Year Funded: 2011 Budget: $29,978.00 Funding Agency: Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario
Title: Development of a Serious Game to Promote Safer Lifting Techniques in the Fire Service
Category: Transferring Research Knowledge to the Workplace
Subcategory: How Research can be Transformed
Keywords: Virtual Reality, Fire Fighters, Serious Game, Back Pain, Lifting Techniques
Link to research website:

Issue:

Back pain accounts for 33% of all Canadian workers’ compensation claims. Improper lifting techniques can lead to acute low back injuries and chronic low back disability. Virtual reality simulations and video games are used as a form of teaching in many occupational settings.

Objectives:

• To develop a prototype of an interactive serious game using posture-tracking technology to provide an effective educational and reinforcement tool for fire fighters to learn correct lifting techniques for specific tasks.
• Characterize the various fire fighting tasks required by fire fighters to perform at typical call scenarios.
• Assess the level of risk associated with performing the various tasks so that the most relevant tasks can be selected for further use in the prototype.
• Development of a serious game prototype for fire fighters implementing the various lifting techniques required during numerous call scenarios as well as in the fire hall depicting the correct techniques to be utilized.
• Gather preliminary data on the forces being applied when performing the functional tasks, so that the actual forces can later be incorporated into higher levels of the game

Anticipated Results:

Using well-understood video game design methodologies, the researchers intend to create a compelling environment that engages fire-fighters in a training regime that is fun, exciting, competitive, and has minimal entry barriers (i.e. no need to wear motion capture markers, little to no setup).

Investigators:

Andrew Hogue (University of Ontario Institute of Technology)