PMID- 18295625 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20080312 LR - 20080225 IS - 1532-821X (Electronic) IS - 0003-9993 (Linking) VI - 89 IP - 3 DP - 2008 Mar TI - Effectiveness evaluation of a remote accessibility assessment system for wheelchair users using virtualized reality. PG - 470-9 LID - 10.1016/j.apmr.2007.08.158 [doi] AB - OBJECTIVE: To determine the value of the Remote Accessibility Assessment System (RAAS), a 3-dimensional (3D) image reconstruction technology designed to analyze accessibility of the target built environment in a virtualized reality, in assessing a built environment's accessibility by calculating the congruence level between the RAAS and conventional in-person method. DESIGN: Repeated-measures (within-subject) design. SETTING: A university research laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Three homes for people who use wheeled mobility devices. INTERVENTION: Home physical environment was divided into several potential problem areas such as entrance, hallway, bathroom, and living room. Each area was identified by several tasks that might be performed in it. All possible tasks in each area within each home were evaluated using 2 methods: RAAS and the conventional in-person assessment. The evaluations were performed by a different home modification specialist for each method. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Conventional in-person assessments were cross-tabulated with assessments from RAAS, with which there are 4 possible assessment combinations. A true positive (checked-checked) occurs when the RAAS method checks the target task as problematic and it is also checked as problematic by the conventional in-person method. True negative (not checked-not checked), false positive (not checked-checked), and false negative (checked-not checked) were also identified as the same way. RESULTS: The proportion of overall agreement was high at 94.1% and the overall sensitivity and specificity was 95.6% and 90.3%, respectively. A significant kappa coefficient of .857 and the 95% confidence interval of the odds ratio of 104.062 to 404.921 were calculated and a high level of overall agreement rate was shown. A high P value (.868) of the McNemar test implied that there was no marginal homogeneity, that is, no tendency to identify the task incorrectly in the positive or negative direction. CONCLUSIONS: This system proved that virtualized reality and 3D reconstruction technology may provide an effective means to investigate the architectural features of a built environment without an expert visiting the site. This system could become an efficient tool for the service provider and can provide expert service to underserved clients that would otherwise be unavailable. FAU - Kim, Jongbae AU - Kim J AD - VA Center of Excellence in Wheelchairs and Associated Rehabilitation Engineering and Human Engineering Research Laboratories, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, PA 15206, USA. jbkim@pitt.edu FAU - Brienza, David M AU - Brienza DM FAU - Lynch, Robert D AU - Lynch RD FAU - Cooper, Rory A AU - Cooper RA FAU - Boninger, Michael L AU - Boninger ML LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. PL - United States TA - Arch Phys Med Rehabil JT - Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation JID - 2985158R SB - IM MH - Cerebral Palsy/rehabilitation MH - Confidence Intervals MH - Disabled Persons/*rehabilitation MH - Evaluation Studies as Topic MH - Female MH - Humans MH - *Imaging, Three-Dimensional MH - Male MH - Models, Structural MH - Multiple Sclerosis/rehabilitation MH - Paraplegia/rehabilitation MH - Probability MH - Research Design MH - Sensitivity and Specificity MH - *User-Computer Interface MH - *Wheelchairs EDAT- 2008/02/26 09:00 MHDA- 2008/03/13 09:00 CRDT- 2008/02/26 09:00 PHST- 2007/02/08 00:00 [received] PHST- 2007/08/24 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2007/08/28 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2008/02/26 09:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2008/03/13 09:00 [medline] PHST- 2008/02/26 09:00 [entrez] AID - S0003-9993(07)01739-X [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.apmr.2007.08.158 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2008 Mar;89(3):470-9. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2007.08.158.