Ibrahim Bilau

Ibrahim Bilau, Stacie Smith, Abdurrahman Baru et al.

Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a promising tool for assessing instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) in older adults. However, the ecological validity of these simulations is often compromised by simplified or low-fidelity environmental design that fails to elicit a genuine sense of presence. This paper documents a reproducible Reality-to-VR pipeline for creating a photorealistic environmental simulation to support a study on cognitive aging in place. The proposed workflow captured the as-built kitchen of the Aware Home building at Georgia Tech using Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) for sub-millimeter geometric accuracy, followed by point cloud processing in Faro SCENE, geometric retopology in SketchUp, and integration into Unreal Engine 5 via Datasmith with Lumen global illumination for high visual fidelity. The pipeline achieved photorealistic rendering while maintaining a stable 90 Hz frame rate, a critical threshold for mitigating cybersickness in older populations. The environment also enables instantaneous manipulation of environmental variables, such as switching between closed cabinetry and open shelving, providing experimental flexibility impossible in physical settings. Participant validation with 17 older adults confirmed minimal cybersickness risk and preserved sensitivity to the experimental manipulation, supporting the pipeline's feasibility for aging-in-place research and establishing a benchmark for future comparative studies.

Ibrahim Bilau, Nicole Li, Terrence Malayvong et al.

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) affects 15-20% of adults aged 65 and older, often making kitchen navigation and independent living difficult, particularly in lower-income communities with limited access to professional design help. This study created an AI system that converts standard kitchen photos into MCI-friendly designs using the Home Design Guidelines (HDG). Stable Diffusion models, enhanced with DreamBooth LoRA and ControlNet, were trained on 100 kitchen images to produce realistic visualizations with open layouts, transparent cabinetry, better lighting, non-slip flooring, and less clutter. The models achieved moderate to high semantic alignment (normalized CLIP scores 0.69-0.79) and improved visual realism (GIQA scores 0.45-0.65). In a survey of 33 participants (51.5% caregivers, 36.4% older adults with MCI), the AI-modified kitchens were strongly preferred as more cognitively friendly (87.4% of 198 choices, p < .001). Participants reported high confidence in their kitchen choice selections (M = 5.92/7) and found the visualizations very helpful for home modifications (M = 6.27/7). Thematic analysis emphasized improved visibility, lower cognitive load, and greater independence. Overall, this AI tool provides a low-cost, scalable way for older adults and caregivers to visualize and implement DIY kitchen changes, supporting aging in place and resilience for those with MCI.

Ibrahim Bilau, Eunhwa Yang, Hyeokhyen Kwon et al.

This study examines how visual accessibility through cabinet design influences task performance, cognitive load, physical activity level, motivation, and user experience in a virtual kitchen among older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Seventeen older adults (7 with MCI, 10 without) completed a repeated-measures item retrieval task under two conditions, closed cabinets and open shelving, using a counterbalanced within-subjects design. Measures included task duration, physical activity level (ENMO), cognitive load (NASA-TLX and gaze entropy), intrinsic motivation (IMI), and post-task interviews. Open shelving significantly reduced task duration (beta = -291.20, p < .001) and physical activity level (beta = -0.00615, p = .008). Gaze entropy increased (beta = 1.29, p = .001), with a significant Setting x MCI interaction (p = .009) and moderation by MoCA score (p < .001). NASA-TLX and intrinsic motivation did not differ significantly between conditions. Qualitative findings indicated reduced reliance on memory-based search and highlighted themes related to independence, aesthetics, safety, and adoption. Overall, visual accessibility improved efficiency and reduced movement demands while altering visual-search organization, with divergence between subjective and objective indicators of cognitive load. These findings support visually accessible design strategies to enhance functional performance and inform cognitively supportive built environments for aging populations.