In recent years, Internet enabled objects (Internet of Things) and their augmentation through virtual reality has become both technically possible and increasingly advanced. This paper explores how interaction between physical IoTs and their virtual and digital twins can be advanced. Three virtual reality games focusing on three different interactions were created. One game focused on rotating, another on pushing and pulling, and a third on lifting and dropping. All games revolved around the use of real tracked cardboard boxes which were represented in the games by a virtual box in the same relative position and rotation to the player, allowing participants to manipulate the virtual boxes by manipulating the physical boxes. 14 participants were asked to play the games and were afterwards interviewed in regards to the games, their interactions with them, their enjoyability and their thoughts regarding them and the concept in general. The results were acquired from game performance, the reflections of the participants, and the subsequent analysis of recorded audio and video. The study presents the difficulties, challenges and opportunities of such a system, while also providing insight into lessons learned from the creation of the system and the games. The main contributions of the paper are the lessons learned in creating the games and experiences in addition to a few specific areas of interest for future research on the area, namely the importance of ergonomic consideration and affordance evaluation. / De senaste åren har föremål kopplade till Internet (Internet of Things eller Sakernas Internet) och deras augmentering genom virtuell verklighet både blivit möjligt och mer tekniskt avancerat. Denna rapport utforskar hur interaktioner mellan fysiska IoT föremål och deras virtuella och digitala tvillingar kan förbättras. Tre VR-spel med fokus på tre olika interaktioner utvecklades. Ett av spelen fokuserade på rotation, ett annat på rörelsen fram och tillbaka, och det tredje på rörelsen upp och ner. Alla spel involverade användandet av riktiga kartonglådor som representerades i spelet av en virtuell låda i samma position och rotation i relation till spelaren, vilket lät spelaren manipulera de virtuella lådorna genom att manipulera de fysiska lådorna. 14 deltagare ombads spela spelen och intervjuades i efterhand angående spelen, interaktionerna, underhållningsvärdet och deras tankar kring konceptet. Resultaten kom från deltagarnas prestationer i spelen, deras reflektioner och efterföljande analys av inspelad audio och video. Studien presenterar svårigheter, utmaningar och möjligheter hos det beskrivna systemet och delar med sig av insikter från skapandeprocessen av systemet och spelen. Studiens huvudsakliga bidrag är de nämnda insikterna från skapandeprocessen samt ett par specifika intresseområden för framtida forskning: vikten av hänsyn till ergonomi och utvärdering av affordans.

On-the-job injuries that occur even after implementing safety interventions highlight the need for identifying the limitations in them and for making future safety interventions and technological advances more effective. One possible reason for this lower-than-expected-safety returns is the latent side-effect of safety interventions, known as risk compensation. This dissertation aimed to provide empirical evidence and theoretical considerations of risk compensation effect in the construction industry. Accordingly, a multi-sensor immersive mixed-reality environment consists of a virtual projection of the environment and passive haptics of a roof was developed to study risk compensation among residential roofers. Simulating height, environmental factors (wind and sound), passive haptic, and virtual falls stimulated sufficient Sense of Presence to trigger subjects' behavioral changes while installing shingles on a 27-degree sloped roof under three levels of safety interventions (i.e., with no fall-safety intervention, with an injury-reducing fall-safety intervention—i.e., fall-arrest system—and with an injury-preventing fall-safety intervention— i.e., a fall-arrest system and a guardrail). The baseline demographic, psychographic, and cognitive measures combined with real-time tracking and wearable sensors provided an opportunity to track the worker's motions, localize his/her position, obtain real-time musculoskeletal data, and monitor the his/her behavioral and physiological responses. The collected data is then translated into information about the risk perception and risk-taking behavior of the worker. The results yielded unequivocal evidence of risk compensation—the lower perceived risk associated with the situation (lower levels of stress) and the false sense of security among roofers when they were provided with safety interventions apparently encouraged them to be less cautious by leaning over the edge, stepping closer to the roof edge, spending more time exposing themselves to fall risk, over-relying on the safety equipment through different facing directions and choices of posture stability. As a result, they also experienced more near-misses (close calls). This behavioral adaptation was more pronounced when they were provided with an injury-preventing safety intervention (e.g., guardrail). The findings also suggested that the productivity and safety benefits of safety interventions can be negated due to risk compensation, which identifies vital information for the construction-safety community to consider during the design and implementation of more effective safety interventions and technological advances. Roofers with high risk tolerance and sensation seekers were identified as high-risk groups who are more likely to be involved in risk-compensatory behaviors; various behavioral interventions are suggested in this dissertation to counteract excessive risk-taking and to reduce risk compensation. The findings of this study shed light on the question of why injury rates have remained at worrisome levels despite advances in protective measures and interventions. In the long-term, a better understanding of risk compensation will translate into fundamental knowledge about how the construction industry should approach and maintain controls after safety interventions. / Doctor of Philosophy / While researchers have dispensed considerable efforts to reduce the risk of occupational injuries by implementing safety interventions, the large number of safety incidents occurring each year in the construction industry. It is hypothesized that the latent effect of safety interventions, known as risk compensation, might be a possible reason why many of the safety interventions and technological advances have not fully achieved their safety objectives. This dissertation aimed to empirically examine the changes in workers' productivity, risk perception, risk-taking behaviors as a function of different safety interventions in place. To study this within a risk-free setting, an immersive mixed-reality environment simulating roofing task was developed. Then, the reactionary behavioral responses of participants were monitored using real-time tracking sensors and qualitative sources of data while they were completing a roofing task under three counterbalanced levels of safety interventions (i.e., with no fall-safety intervention, with an injury-reducing fall-safety intervention—i.e., fall-arrest system—and with an injury-preventing fall-safety intervention— i.e., a fall-arrest system and a guardrail). The findings indicated that the reduced perceived risk and the desire for increased productivity may skew risk analysis and strongly bias workers toward presuming invulnerability when safety interventions are in place. According to risk compensation theory, workers' risk tolerance and perceptions of risk influence their risk-taking behavior—as the perceived risk associated with the situation decreases, individuals take more risks to achieve a level of risk they can comfortably tolerate. Therefore, the workers might become less cautious by leaning over the edge, stepping closer to the roof edge, spending more time exposing themselves to fall risk, over-relying on the safety equipment through different facing directions and choices of posture stability. This result does not necessarily imply the safety innovations are completely ineffective, but rather demonstrates dangers users face when they misperceive the effectiveness of a safety intervention. Furthermore, roofers with high risk tolerance and a high sensation-seeking disposition were identified as high-risk groups who are more likely to be involved in risk-compensatory behaviors. This research represented a substantive departure from the status quo by proposing novel pathways for proactive incident prevention due to risk compensation in the construction industry. The contribution of this study is especially significant because a better understanding of risk compensation will translate into fundamental knowledge about how the construction industry should approach and maintain controls after safety interventions.