Development of an autonomous character in Karate Kumite

Virtual Reality (VR) has become common practice in the field of sports, but autonomous virtual environment (VE) systems, especially in fast reacting sports, are rare. The current study demonstrates the development of an autonomous character (AC) in karate kumite, which performs attacks against a freely moving, real athlete. The development of the AC consists of four steps: selection of relevant karate techniques, development of a decision system, creation of an animated model of the AC, and the evaluation. A Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) and a Head Mounted Display (HMD) were chosen for the VE. The evaluation of the AC in the VEs was conducted by expert interviews (n = 6). The results reveal a feeling of comfort for all athletes in VR which underpins a high degree of realism in the VEs. Moreover, the HMDs are seen as more suitable than CAVEs for presenting a karate specific environment. Based on these results the developed AC seems applicable for anticipation research and training in karate kumite. The discussion includes further possible improvements for the AC as well as future directions for further investigations and training programs using the AC. Moreover, the procedure of the AC's creation can be transferred to other sports.