Curator SVV – Subjective Visual Vertical

 

Click here for the Oculus Store link for this application.

 

 

Curator SVV allows you to measure visual-vestibular biais in Virtual Reality.

10 tilted famous paintings are presented on a black background.

With a remote gamepad, you will adjust the painting to straighten/level it, as you would do with a painting on a wall.

 

This App only works with a Samsung Gear VR headset and a Bluetooth remote gamepad.

 

 

The first time you will use the App, you will be required to do a quick calibration – see below for more information.

 

Instructions given to the patient and interpretation of the results are very important. Please read the section below: “Curator SVV: how to use the App?”.

 

If you have any question, please contact us at: [email protected]

 

This App has been validated. Results are published in a peer-review paper that you can find with this link: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10055-018-0336-5

Chiarovano E, McGarvie LA, Szmulewicz D, MacDougall HG.
Subjective visual vertical in virtual reality (Curator SVV): validation and normative data.
Virtual Reality, (2018);1-6.

 

Curator SVV: Calibration

Please follow the text instructions below or download the pdf file with screen captures: Curator SVV Calibration v2

 

Items you need:

  • Gear VR headset
  • A compatible Samsung phone
  • A Bluetooth remote gamepad
  • A piece of opaque tape or sticker

 

Procedure:

1. Unlock your Samsung phone

2. Connect your remote gamepad to your phone by Bluetooth:

Switch on the gamepad by pressing the start button until the light starts flashing.

Open Settings > Connections > Bluetooth. Wait for your remote gamepad to appear.

Then click on your remote gamepad device (called ‘VR BOX’ for us). And wait for the connection.

Press the home button on your phone for coming back to your home screen.

3. Check for your Bluetooth connection: move the 360 joystick on your gamepad.

If you see a blue square appears around one icon on your phone screen. Your connection is good.

If an arrow appears on your phone screen, you need to switch into the ‘game mode’. For that, press ‘@ B’ buttons on your gamepad at the same time and release. The light on your gamepad should flash.

4. Open the Oculus Store onto your phone.

5. Go to Library

6. Press onto Curator SVV

7. Insert phone into the Gear VR headset.

8. Press the volume-up button on the headset to check that the sound is on.

9. Put the Gear VR on your head.

10. For Curator SVV to function correctly, it will ask for a number of permissions to be allowed. When asked, point your head to “Allow” and while the white dot is still on the “Allow” button, tap the Gear VR touch pad (right hand side of the headset). Do this for each permission requested.

11. Wait for the program to load and read the first screen.

12. Press the validation button on your gamepad – on our gamepad the validation button is the top ‘D’ button (it might be a different one on your gamepad).

13. Read the summary of the instructions for the calibration.

14. Press the validation button on your gamepad

15. When the following text appears on the screen: “Capturing first value…”, the calibration is ready to start.

16. Remove the headset and cover the light sensor under the right lens with a small piece of tape or sticker.

17. Place your headset on a flat surface.

18. Press the validation button on your gamepad. A ‘whoop’ sound is heard, the first value is captured.

19. Rotate the headset on the surface (to the left or right) by 180 degrees.

20. Press the validation button on your gamepad. If a ‘whoop’ sound is heard, the second value is captured, and the calibration is complete. If an ‘error’ sound is heard, the headset has not been fully rotated 180 degrees, adjust the position of the headset and press the validation button again. Repeat until you heard a ‘whoop’ sound.

21. The calibration is now complete.

22. Remove the phone from the Gear VR headset.

23. Remove the tape or sticker from the sensor.

 

You can now start using the app.

 

Caution:

if you change your Gear VR headset or you Samsung phone, you would need to do the calibration again. For the calibration to prompt again, please delete the following file: My Files > Internal Storage > Documents > CuratorSVV > RollOffset.txt

Then run Curator SVV App again.

 

 

Curator SVV: How to use the App?

 

Items you need:

Please download the pdf file with the instructions and screen captures: Curator SVV TEST procedure v2

 

Suggestion of instructions for the patient (before put the headset on):

Inside the headset you will see a painting. This painting will be tilt to the left or to the right. With this gamepad you will rotate the painting (with the left and right buttons on the gamepad) and put the painting straight or level as you would do on a wall. Once you see the painting straight, press the top button on your gamepad for validate. The next painting will appear. There are 10 paintings in total.

 

Procedure:

1. Connect your Bluetooth remote gamepad to the phone.

2. Check for your Bluetooth connection: move the 360 joystick on your gamepad .

If you see a blue square appears around one icon on your phone screen. Your connection is good.

If an arrow appears on your phone screen, you need to switch into the ‘game mode’. For that, press ‘@ B’ buttons on your gamepad at the same time and release. The light on your gamepad should flash.

3. Open Curator SVV App

Open the Oculus Store on your phone. Go to Library and press onto Curator SVV. Insert the phone into the Gear VR headset (see the “Calibration procedure” document – steps 4 to 9).

4. During the test:

If your gamepad is connected, the first screen you should see inside the headset is a big green circle

Otherwise, you will see a red circle meaning that your remote gamepad is not connected.

The remote gamepad should be held by the person/patient doing the test with the joystick pointing down.

Please check that the head position is straight.

When the patient is ready, he/she can press the validation button to start.  In our gamepad the validation button is the top ‘D’ button (it might be a different one on your gamepad).

The first painting will be displayed. With the left and right (A and B) buttons, the patient will move/rotate the picture in order to put it straight/level. Once the patient thinks that the painting is straight, he/she presses the validation button to validate the answer. The next painting will be displayed.

At the end of the 10 trials, a message appears: “The test is completed…”

5. After the test

The outcome is a .csv file automatically saved into a ‘Curator SVV’ folder. This folder is located at: My Files > Internal Storage > Documents > Curator SVV.

The .csv file contains for the 10 trials: trial number, image index, start angle of the picture, response angle, time stamp of the response, roll, pitch, yaw of the head position, aspect ratio of the picture.

 

If you have any question, please contact us at: [email protected]