In Silico Testing of Augmented Reality Interfaces: An Intensive Care Unit Simulation

05.09.2025, Abschlussarbeiten, Bachelor- und Masterarbeiten

The Human-Centered Computing and Extended Reality Lab of the Professorship for Machine Intelligence in Orthopedics seeks applicants for Bachelor/Master Thesis for the Winter Semester 2025/2026.

Overview

The project aims at improving a virtual reality (VR) intensive care unit simulation and evaluating augmented reality interfaces that are simulated in this environment for in silico testings. These interfaces are designed to display selective information to the users and reduce the stress level of personnel. The prototype is developed in Unity (C#) and students are expected to improve the prototype guided by discussions and perform a user study.

Background & Motivation

Medical staff working in ICUs are constantly exposed to a variety of alarms from different monitoring devices. This stimulus-saturated working environment contributes to the stress and workload experienced by nurse [3]. While testing of novel interfaces and systems in a real ICU is challenging, virtual reality (VR) represents a powerful tool and methodology to simulate an ICU environment and test optimization scenarios. VR simulations have already been used to study some stressors in the context of the ICU work environment. In a virtual environment created by Weiß et al. [5], participants experience moral discomfort as a result of the patient’s family’s wishes for continued We have developed a VR simulation of an ICU that is capable of providing an immersive and realistic display of a reproduced stress simulation in the form of visual and audible alarms, close to a real-world scenario. An initial user study investigated how the selective presentation of alarms affects ICU nurses' workload and stress [4]. AR has shown to be a valuable tool for alarm distribution and patient monitoring. The current project investigates how an Augmented Reality (AR) head-mounted display for alarm management can be integrated into the simulation and thus tested in silico. The primary goal of this project is to improve the current AR System and the ICU simulation itself.

Student’s Task

The project has the objective of enhancing the current implementation in several technical aspects and before a user study with medical experts to evaluate the system.

Implementing functional improvements to the existing prototype.
Enhancing feedback and metaphor design for user interaction.
Improving locomotion mechanics within the VR environment.
Integrating additional data tracking, such as walking routes and behavioral metrics.
Designing and conducting a user study with medical experts to evaluate the system

Furthermore, the project intends to empirically evaluate these enhancements by conducting a user study involving medical expert participants.

Required Skills and Qualifications

Applicants should bring the following skills:

Experience with Unity 3D programming for developing and improving the VR prototype.
German language proficiency to communicate effectively with ICU nurses and medical staff during the user study.
Interest in usability and human-centered design, with a focus on optimizing user experience.
Basic knowledge of user study design and data analysis (e.g., setting up experiments, collecting and interpreting results).
Strong communication and collaboration skills, including empathy and professionalism when working with medical experts

Please send your transcript of records, CV and motivation to: Luisa Theelke (luisa.theelke@tum.de) with CC to hex-thesis.ortho@mh.tum.de

Literatur

[1] Lotte van Dammen et al. “Evoking stress reactivity in virtual reality: A systematic review and meta-analysis”. In: Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 138 (2022), p. 104709.
[2] Michael T Pascale et al. “The impact of head-worn displays on strategic alarm management and situation awareness”. In: Human factors 61.4 (2019), pp. 537–563.
[3] Keith J Ruskin and Dirk Hueske-Kraus. “Alarm fatigue: impacts on patient safety”. In: Current Opinion in Anesthesiology 28.6 (2015), pp. 685–690.
[4] Luisa Theelke et al. “Investigating the Effects of Selective Information Presentation in Intensive Care Units Using Virtual Reality”. In: 2023 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR). IEEE. 2023, pp. 195–204.
[5] Sebastian Weiß, Steffen Busse, and Wilko Heuten. “Inducing emotional stress from the intensive care context using storytelling in VR”. In: 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR). IEEE. 2022, pp. 196–204.
[6] Sebastian Weiß and Wilko Heuten. “Don’t Panic!-Influence of Virtual Stressor Representations from the ICU Context on Perceived Stress Levels”. In: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2023, pp. 1–15.

Kontakt: hex-thesis.ortho@mh.tum.de, luisa.theelke@tum.de