Need Help with Yaw Chair/Oculus Quest setup for child with disability

Hi -- I hope this is the right place to post. I'm relatively new to VR and new to the Yaw chair. My son has severe autism and loves VR and roller coasters -- but he is not able to control the VR device on his own. What we want is to be able to put him in the chair and control everything externally so that we do not have to keep putting on the VR headset, starting the ride and quickly switching him into place.

With a lot of trial and error (for us) we have managed to get to the point where we have tethered the Oculus to a computer system and can see what the user sees on the screen. However, I have not been able to control it or make selections of rides or start, etc. , from the computer -- the person in the headset still has to control the experience.

Also, it seems like every time we want to use it we have to connect the chair to the app on phone or ipad, connect the Oculus to the chair through the headset, then login to the casting website on the computer OR the oculus website with the game (Epic roller coasters) downloaded. And then after all that it seems the wearer of the headset still has to control the experience.

Can anyone out there advise me how to set things up more easily so that we could just put my son in the chair with the headset, and do all the rest on the connected computer? (Dell/Alienware)?

Thanks very much in advance.

Comments

  • @arikalisanne Hi, I wish there was an easy answer for you but the YawVR experience is not very consumer-friendly. It requires a lot of applications and tweaking to get it working properly, which is a pain even for a single user! One thing that might help you a little - you can use the Oculus Quest wirelessly if you purchase Virtual Desktop on it. There are tutorials online for how to get the Quest wirelessly connected to the PC. This will allow you to see what he sees in the headset without being attached with a wire.

    The downside to Quest + Virtual Desktop is it is yet another app to have running, and it has it's own problems if you're not physically located near your wifi router without doors or walls blocking it. It requires high speed connection so is very sensitive to location.

    Another app that can reduce friction somewhat is Sim Racing Studio. It natively supports the YawVR and in my experience it is easier to use than Yaw Game Engine + Yaw Phone App. With Sim Racing Studio you can calibrate the YawVR using your PC.

    No Limits 2 is beautiful and more realistic, but you will likely want to stick to maps that include only a single coaster. There are lots of maps available with multiple rides, but those get pretty tricky even for a VR pro to board the coaster they want.

    I somewhat doubt there is a good solution for you to control the experience external to the VR headset. The system is designed to be used by the person wearing the headset, and in the case of the Quest the headset actually is the thing that tracks the controllers. If you are seated fairly close to your son you could probably do it decently provided you can see the screen on the PC as well. However with the YawVR rotating around that complicates things a bit...

    Have you reached out to Oculus with questions about usability for people with disabilities? It seems like something they would be more likely to help with than the YawVR folks.

    You also might reach out to an organization that uses VR for people with disabilities. For example, I'm from Minnesota and I know Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute has done some work with VR. You could try shooting them an email: https://account.allinahealth.org/servicelines/815

  • Welcome to YawVr family huni. @supatrupa is correct and he gives excellent advice. I hope that you manage to get your simulator to work and that the whole family can experience the thrills of motion virtual reality.

  • Hello, I'm not sure if you've found a solution for your problem yet, but I wanted to add to what 'Supatrupa' said about using Virtual Desktop. When you are in Virtual Desktop the start/setup screen, you have the option to set the input device to your mouse instead of the Oculus controllers. I haven't tried it, but you should be able to use the mouse to click on what is displayed on the screen while your son wears the headset.

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