Physical human factor for the development of universal XR platform to build a metaverse supporting digital inclusive leisure & culture

Abstract: Leisure refers to non-obligatory activities that are driven by intrinsic motivation allowing individuals to freely allocate their time based on personal interests including sports, culture, and artistic engagement. Participation in leisure activities is one of the important factors that affect an individual's well-being, including the management of physical and mental health, the ability to cope with stress, and the improvement of quality of life. According to a 2021 survey (10,000 people over 15 years old) by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of South Korea, approximately 80% of respondents continue to engage in sports, hobbies, and entertainment activities, and the trend is increasing every year. The government of South Korea is carrying out policies to guarantee fundamental rights to leisure and culture and improve their quality of life. Koreans’ interest in leisure and cultural activities is steadily increasing. Thus, the government is striving to promote the health and well-being of its citizens by implementing policies to guarantee these rights.Metaverse has recently emerged as a future industry. Various digital contents based on the metaverse are emerging to provide leisure services such as exercising, playing games, and watching performances. South Korea is also introducing the metaverse to public services including the cultural sector, to provide universal public services to people. Recently, there has been a growing interest in XR (eXtended Reality) technology, which encompasses immersive technologies such as VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality), and MR (Mixed Reality). This can increase the sense of immersion and realism, so users can have an experience that is very similar to reality through the fusion of XR technology and the metaverse space.However, the current metaverse users in South Korea are overly concentrated in their teens and 20s. In addition, there is a limited amount of content that spans different generations. This is a major obstacle to the universalization of the metaverse for the public and the development of related industries. Moreover, since Korea entered an aging society, the number of elderly people has been steadily increasing every year. This trend can lead to societal problems such as digital exclusion and digital illiteracy. As the aging process progresses, human physical and cognitive functions deteriorate rapidly, which can significantly limit the adaptation and utilization of rapidly evolving technologies. To build a metaverse space that is universally accessible to everyone, it is necessary to take into account the differences in physical and cognitive functions that occur due to aging.Based on the requirement, we are currently developing an XR technology-based metaverse platform and content that allows juniors and seniors to enjoy leisure activities together. The research consists of the development of a metaverse platform based on XR technology, three types of sports (bowling, golf, walking), and three types of games (puzzle, escape, adventure). First, utilizing related devices such as head-mounted displays (HMDs), log data, and Unity plugin-based acquisition technology, we acquire user data related to physical and cognitive abilities while performing six types of content. Subsequently, we will apply data mining techniques to extract significant characteristics in physical and cognitive abilities between junior and senior generations. Finally, we aim to define relevant human factor parameters by analyzing intergenerational differences in these features. The extracted human factor parameters are used in the process of correction and augmentation of intergenerational differences in physical and cognitive abilities.In this study, we aim to provide a detailed description of the concept and process of our ongoing research and introduce our research future directions. In particular, we focus on the human factor extraction process related to six types of content.

Keywords: Human factor, Universal XR platform technology, Leisure

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004443

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