Promoting Physical Activity for Elderly People with Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR)

Abstract

Physical and social activities should be included in an efficient e-coaching for older adults and immersive virtual reality (IVR) is efficient if behavioral changes are transferred to the real physical world. In an experiment con-ducted with 42 older adults (63-85 years-old), participants were asked to interact with a specific immersive virtual reality (IVR) daily for 4 months in their homes, at least 15 minutes per day. Results demonstrate several positive impacts related to the use of the IVR (decrease of weight, decrease of waist circumference, number of steps outside) even if the time spent to use this IVR system decreases. So the transfer from the IVR to the real world is very encouraging.