Understanding validity of user behaviour in Virtual Environments (VEs) is critical as they are increasingly being used for serious Health and Safety applications such as predicting human behaviour and training in hazardous situations. This paper presents a comparative study exploring user behaviour in VE-based fire evacuation and investigates whether this is affected by the addition of thermal and olfactory simulation. Participants (N=43) were exposed to a virtual fire in an office building. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of participant attitudes and behaviours found deviations from those we would expect in real life (e.g. pre-evacuation actions), but also valid behaviours like fire avoidance. Potentially important differences were found between multisensory and audiovisual-only conditions (e.g. perceived urgency). We conclude VEs have significant potential in safety-related applications, and that multimodality may afford additional uses in this context, but the identified limitations of behavioural validity must be carefully considered to avoid misapplication of the technology.

Involvement of children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) in the design of new educational technology is becoming more prevalent. Despite potential barriers due to communication and ideation difficulties for children with ASC, adapted participatory design methods can successfully facilitate their direct involvement. Nonetheless, methods requiring face-to-face communication can still be difficult for children with ASC and research suggests that technology mediation could facilitate their contribution. This study explores the use of collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) as a medium through which students evaluated existing computer games and offered suggestions for game development. CVEs in which the users were represented by (a) avatars and (b) video-pods were compared to a face-to-face condition. Twelve typically developing (aged 8–9 years), 12 higher ability ASC (12–14) and 4 lower ability ASC children (12–14) participated. All student groups preferred the video-pod CVE and students with ASC were generally better able to contribute effectively through this medium than face-to-face.

This paper presents a multisensory and low-cost virtual training simulator developed in Unity 3D, with the aim of improving the effectiveness of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) training. The prototype system facilitates heat and smell feedback functions operated by an Arduino microprocessor and triggered based on the proximity of the avatar to receptive 4 within the Virtual Environment (VE). The prototype enables the creation of bespoke virtual representations using the 3D scanning function of the Google Tango device making multisensory VE OSH training a feasible and versatile approach in the short-term future.