Evaluating Simulated Augmented Reality Interfaces in a VR Role-Playing Simulator for Police De-Escalation Training
Resumo
This study evaluates future Augmented Reality (AR) interfaces for police de-escalation training by simulating them within a Virtual Reality (VR) role-playing platform, RESPOND. The platform uses live actors to embody avatars, creating realistic and unscripted traffic stop scenarios. We conducted a between-subjects study with 18 police officers to compare simulated AR interfaces against current procedures, measuring performance, workload, and user acceptance. Our results show that the simulated AR-enhanced procedures performed on par with traditional methods, with no significant differences in task time, interaction outcomes, or cognitive load. Despite maintaining operational performance, officers strongly preferred traditional methods (NPS = -77.78), though individual AR safety features received high ratings, revealing a critical performance-acceptance paradox. This finding of non-inferiority with resistance is critical, as it demonstrates how VR-based evaluation can uncover adoption barriers before hardware investment. These results validate the feasibility of using VR simulation to preview AR concepts for complex police work and provide a foundation for designing future systems that can enhance officer safety and effectiveness.
Palavras-chave:
VR training, augmented reality, simulation, embodied role-playing, de-escalation training
Referências
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J. G. Grandi, D. B. Costa, and R. Kopper, "Human-in-the-loop vr training with live actor embodiment for police traffic stop de-escalation," in Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction, 2025.
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P. Caserman, P. Schmidt, T. Gobel, J. Zinnacker, A. Kecke, and S. Gobel, "Impact of full-body avatars in immersive multiplayer virtual reality training for police forces," IEEE Transactions on Games, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 706–714, 2022.
R. Girardi and J. C. de Oliveira, "Virtual reality in army artillery observer training," in 2019 21st Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR). IEEE, 2019, pp. 25–33.
A. L. Doneda and J. C. de Oliveira, "Helicopter visual signaling simulation: Integrating vr and ml into a low-cost solution to optimize brazilian navy training," in 2020 22nd Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR). IEEE, 2020, pp. 434–442.
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P. M. Di Nota and J.-M. Huhta, "Complex motor learning and police training: Applied, cognitive, and clinical perspectives," Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 10, p. 464471, 2019.
S. MacLean, F. Geddes, M. Kelly, and P. Della, "Simulated patient training: Using inter-rater reliability to evaluate simulated patient consistency in nursing education," Nurse Educ. Today, vol. 62, pp. 85–90, 2018.
C. Lindgren, "Do you know your outcome of realistic scenario training?" Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 46, pp. 863–869, 2012.
J. E. Munoz, J. A. Lavoie, and A. T. Pope, "Psychophysiological insights and user perspectives: Enhancing police de-escalation skills through full-body vr training," Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 15, p. 1390677, 2024.
M. Slater, J. Howell, A. Steed, D.-P. Pertaub, and M. Garau, "Acting in virtual reality," in Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Collaborative Virtual Environments, 2000, pp. 103–110.
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V. Venkatesh and H. Bala, "Technology acceptance model 3 and a research agenda on interventions," Decision sciences, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 273–315, 2008.
R. J. Holden and B.-T. Karsh, "The technology acceptance model: its past and its future in health care," Journal of biomedical informatics, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 159–172, 2010.
J. G. Lima, E. G. Palmeira, G. C. Sarda, P. G. Feijoo-Garcia, A. G. de Siqueira, and M. G. Ferreira, "Expanding the vr for the social good initiative to brazilian higher education," in Proceedings of the 26th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality, 2024, pp. 80–89.
P. Manu, A.-M. Mahamadu, V.-A. Phung, T.-A. Nguyen, K. Agyekum, L. Mahdjoubi, and A. Gibb, "Barriers to the adoption of new and innovative safety technologies in the construction industry," Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 121–136, 2022.
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W. Weitzl, "Trust in ai and its role in the acceptance of ai technologies," ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 14–41, 2022.
J. G. Grandi, Z. Cao, D. Costa, and R. Kopper, "Assessing the impact of alert modalities on user performance and comprehension in controlled workload conditions," in Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction, 2023, pp. 1–11.
J. M. Morse, "Determining sample size," pp. 3–5, 2000.
G. Guest, A. Bunce, and L. Johnson, "How many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability," Field methods, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 59–82, 2006.
J. Brooke et al. "SUS-A quick and dirty usability scale," Usability evaluation in industry, vol. 189, no. 194, pp. 4–7, 1996.
J. G. Grandi, Z. Cao, M. Ogren, and R. Kopper, "Design and simulation of next-generation augmented reality user interfaces in virtual reality," in 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW). IEEE, 2021, pp. 23–29.
J. B. Woods, "Policing, danger narratives, and routine traffic stops," Mich. L. Rev. vol. 117, p. 635, 2018.
N. Todak, "De-escalation in police-citizen encounters: A mixed methods study of a misunderstood policing strategy," Ph.D. dissertation, Arizona state university, 2017.
J. G. Grandi, D. B. Costa, and R. Kopper, "Human-in-the-loop vr training with live actor embodiment for police traffic stop de-escalation," in Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction, 2025.
M. Murtinger et al. "Assist the vr trainer–real-time dashboard and after-action review for police vr training," in 2022 IEEE International Conference on Metrology for Extended Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Neural Engineering (MetroXRAINE). IEEE, 2022, pp. 69–74.
J. Bertram, J. Moskaliuk, and U. Cress, "Virtual training: Making reality work?" Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 43, pp. 284–292, 2015.
P. Caserman, P. Schmidt, T. Gobel, J. Zinnacker, A. Kecke, and S. Gobel, "Impact of full-body avatars in immersive multiplayer virtual reality training for police forces," IEEE Transactions on Games, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 706–714, 2022.
R. Girardi and J. C. de Oliveira, "Virtual reality in army artillery observer training," in 2019 21st Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR). IEEE, 2019, pp. 25–33.
A. L. Doneda and J. C. de Oliveira, "Helicopter visual signaling simulation: Integrating vr and ml into a low-cost solution to optimize brazilian navy training," in 2020 22nd Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR). IEEE, 2020, pp. 434–442.
J. Saunders et al. "Validating virtual reality as an effective training medium in the security domain," in 2019 IEEE conference on virtual reality and 3D user interfaces (VR). IEEE, 2019, pp. 1908–1911.
J. Comiskey et al. "The association between participant characteristics and perceptions of the effectiveness of law enforcement tactical simulator training," Police Practice and Research, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 1655–1667, 2021.
M. H. Martaindale et al. "Can a virtual reality training scenario elicit similar stress response as a realistic scenario-based training scenario?" Police Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 109–129, 2024.
H. Lamb, "Can vr help to make policing fairer?" Engineering & Technology, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 44–49, 2020.
L. Giessing, "The potential of virtual reality for police training under stress: a swot analysis," in Interventions, training, and technologies for improved police well-being and performance. IGI Global, 2021, pp. 102–124.
J. Potts, A. Hawken, M. Hillhouse, and D. Farabee, "Virtual reality for law enforcement training: a demonstration and implication for dispatch priming," Police Practice and Research, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 623–632, 2022.
L. Kleygrewe, R. V. Hutter, M. Koedijk, and R. R. Oudejans, "Virtual reality training for police officers: A comparison of training responses in vr and real-life training," Police Practice and Research, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 18–37, 2024.
J. G. Grandi, Z. Cao, M. Ogren, and R. Kopper, "Simulating next-generation user interfaces for law enforcement traffic stops," in 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW). IEEE, 2020, pp. 826–827.
V. S. Cim and M. D. S. Hounsell, "Augmented reality for assembly training in industry: A systematic literature mapping," in Proceedings of the 25th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality, 2023, pp. 77–87.
L. Podoletz, M. McGill, D. McIlhatton, J. Marshall, N. Healy, and L. M. Tanczer, "A critical review of virtual and extended reality immersive police training: Application areas, benefits & vulnerabilities," in Proc. 30th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, 2024, pp. 1–21.
V. B. Van Hasselt and S. J. Romano, "Role-playing: A vital tool in crisis negotiation skills training," FBI L. Enforcement Bull. vol. 73, p. 12, 2004.
J. J. Fyfe, "Police/citizen violence reduction project," FBI L. Enforcement Bull. vol. 58, p. 18, 1989.
M. Connelly, J. Suss, and L. DiBello, "Improving expertise in local law enforcement: utilizing virtual environments to assess officer performance and standardize training procedures," in Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, vol. 63, no. 1, 2019, pp. 2144–2148.
P. M. Di Nota and J.-M. Huhta, "Complex motor learning and police training: Applied, cognitive, and clinical perspectives," Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 10, p. 464471, 2019.
S. MacLean, F. Geddes, M. Kelly, and P. Della, "Simulated patient training: Using inter-rater reliability to evaluate simulated patient consistency in nursing education," Nurse Educ. Today, vol. 62, pp. 85–90, 2018.
C. Lindgren, "Do you know your outcome of realistic scenario training?" Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 46, pp. 863–869, 2012.
J. E. Munoz, J. A. Lavoie, and A. T. Pope, "Psychophysiological insights and user perspectives: Enhancing police de-escalation skills through full-body vr training," Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 15, p. 1390677, 2024.
M. Slater, J. Howell, A. Steed, D.-P. Pertaub, and M. Garau, "Acting in virtual reality," in Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Collaborative Virtual Environments, 2000, pp. 103–110.
Y. Wu, Y. Wang, S. Jung, S. Hoermann, and R. W. Lindeman, "Using a fully expressive avatar to collaborate in virtual reality: Evaluation of task performance, presence, and attraction," Frontiers in Virtual Reality, vol. 2, p. 641296, 2021.
M. Garau, M. Slater, V. Vinayagamoorthy, A. Brogni, A. Steed, and M. A. Sasse, "The impact of avatar realism and eye gaze control on perceived quality of communication in a shared immersive virtual environment," in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2003, pp. 529–536.
G. D. Domenico, F. D. C. Becker, B. B. Schirmer, N. L. P. Berwaldt, G. M. d. Freitas, A. C. Neto, C. T. Pozzer, L. M. Fontoura, and R. C. Nunes, "Evaluation of navigation in immersive large-scale vr environments using minimap-assisted teleportation," in Proceedings of the 26th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality, 2024, pp. 270–274.
J. A. Lavoie, N. Alvarez, and Y. Kandil, "Developing community co-designed scenario-based training for police mental health crisis response: A relational policing approach to de-escalation," Journal of police and criminal psychology, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 587–601, 2022.
H. Kip, S. M. Kelders, Y. H. A. Bouman, and L. J. E. W. C. van Gemert-Pijnen, "The importance of systematically reporting and reflecting on ehealth development: Participatory development process of a virtual reality application for forensic mental health care," Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 21, no. 8, p. e12972, 2019.
V. Venkatesh and H. Bala, "Technology acceptance model 3 and a research agenda on interventions," Decision sciences, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 273–315, 2008.
R. J. Holden and B.-T. Karsh, "The technology acceptance model: its past and its future in health care," Journal of biomedical informatics, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 159–172, 2010.
J. G. Lima, E. G. Palmeira, G. C. Sarda, P. G. Feijoo-Garcia, A. G. de Siqueira, and M. G. Ferreira, "Expanding the vr for the social good initiative to brazilian higher education," in Proceedings of the 26th Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality, 2024, pp. 80–89.
P. Manu, A.-M. Mahamadu, V.-A. Phung, T.-A. Nguyen, K. Agyekum, L. Mahdjoubi, and A. Gibb, "Barriers to the adoption of new and innovative safety technologies in the construction industry," Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 121–136, 2022.
H. Yildirim and R. Kennon, "A dynamic model of technology adoption with risk aversion," Operations Research, vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 939–955, 2017.
W. Weitzl, "Trust in ai and its role in the acceptance of ai technologies," ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 14–41, 2022.
J. G. Grandi, Z. Cao, D. Costa, and R. Kopper, "Assessing the impact of alert modalities on user performance and comprehension in controlled workload conditions," in Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction, 2023, pp. 1–11.
J. M. Morse, "Determining sample size," pp. 3–5, 2000.
G. Guest, A. Bunce, and L. Johnson, "How many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability," Field methods, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 59–82, 2006.
J. Brooke et al. "SUS-A quick and dirty usability scale," Usability evaluation in industry, vol. 189, no. 194, pp. 4–7, 1996.
Publicado
30/09/2025
Como Citar
GRANDI, Jeronimo; COSTA, Dalton B.; KOPPER, Regis.
Evaluating Simulated Augmented Reality Interfaces in a VR Role-Playing Simulator for Police De-Escalation Training. In: SIMPÓSIO DE REALIDADE VIRTUAL E AUMENTADA (SVR), 27. , 2025, Salvador/BA.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
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p. 130-140.
