Proc. 7 th Intl Conf. Disability, Virtual Reality & Assoc. Tech., [ArtAbilitation], Maia, Portugal, 2008 ©2008 ICDVRAT/University of Reading, UK; ISBN 07 049 15 00 6 1 “Passages”: a 3D artistic interface for children’s rehabilitation and special needs Fiammetta Ghedini * , Haakon Faste * , Marcello Carrozzino † and Massimo Bergamasco * (*) PERCRO Laboratory, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Piazza Martiri della Libertà 33, Pisa, ITALY (†) IMT Institute for Advanced Studies, Lucca, ITALY E-mail: f.ghedini@sssup.it, h.faste@sssup.it ABSTRACT Passages is an immersive, multimodal, user-controlled artistic interface. It consists of a three- dimensional interactive Virtual Environment that can be created, explored and interacted with in real-time. The installation has been exhibited in Grenoble, France, during the ENACTION_in_Arts conference (November 19-24, 2007) and in Pisa, Italy, during the Beyond Movement workshop (December 17-21, 2007). This paper outlines the design of the artistic installation Passages, and its potential in the field of rehabilitation. Keywords: Enactive Knowledge, Expression Interface, Gesture-based Interface 1. INTRODUCTION An outgrowth of the Computer Graphics research field, Virtual Environment (VE) technology has today become a fully independent research topic. VEs are simulated environments generated by a computer with which human operators can interact through different sensory modalities. Real-life applications of VE technology are an increasingly emergent phenomenon, although still in very specialized contexts. There are some fields that have shown a superior receptivity to VE concepts and techniques, the best example being applications of virtual prototyping in the Industrial sector, and in particular collaborative design, product presentation and training. In the Medical sector VEs are commonly used in surgical simulation tasks, medical imaging and neuroscience. One of the most promising medical applications for VE technology is rehabilitation. In this case devices and interaction modalities may present very different features depending on the therapy or the pathology being dealt with. In fact the great flexibility of Virtual Reality (VR) represents one of its great strengths, allowing the most disparate therapeutical needs to be addressed and adapted to the special needs of some users. Indeed, VR is increasingly used to treat pathologies like autism (Gillette et al, 2007), phobias (Carlin et al, 1997) (Powers and Emmelkampa, 2008), brain lesions and neurological speech disorders (Rizzo, 1994). Such systems are designed in order to establish an efficient “interface” between patient and therapist, allowing the latter to define protocols and measurements which will be subsequently used to perform a quantitative evaluation about a patient’s progress. Usually these systems are based on mainly visual protocols, using a range of different types of displays. These may be either standard screens or immersive technologies like head-mounted displays and/or CAVEs (Cruz-Neira et al, 1992). Such is the case in phobia treatments, for example. In the field of motion rehabilitation, however, force feedback devices like haptic interfaces and exoskeletons are also used heavily. These devices are robots able to exert controlled forces upon the user, to enable perception of the VE by means of touch. The generated forces may also be calibrated in order to assist or impede the patient’s motion while performing a specific exercise, depending on the type of therapy. There are several types of robots for this purpose, depending on the functionality required (i.e. allowing planar or three-dimensional movements) or the interaction mode (the robot may be in contact with only one point of the patient, for instance a finger, or it may be completely wearable, etc.). VE technologies are rapidly gaining traction in the fields of Art and Cultural Heritage as well, both for reasons of preservation and conservation as well as for educational purposes. Because VR allows for new