VR hand hygiene training system that visualizes germs to be washed and removed

Although people should wash their hands to prevent infection especially in a place where many people gather, such as in a hospital or a school, it is difficult to teach young children to wash their hands properly. The challenge is to make them understand why they should wash their hands even if they are looking already clean. We propose a novel VR hand washing training system for preschool and lower school grade of children. This system superimposes germ illustrations on their hands through a HMD, and germs get removed when children move their hands in a proper washing motion. Then, they can intuitively learn the reason and the method. We had an experiment to evaluate if our proposed VR system is more effective than a conventional hand hygiene instruction for young children. The result of the experiment will suggest the effectiveness of the proposed system.