Augmented exercise biking with virtual environments for elderly users: A preliminary study for retirement home physical therapy

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to function well as an assistive technology to physical therapy for elderly users. Elderly users are a unique user group in this field, due to their characteristics and demands. They are also a user group that can definitely benefit from VR technology, which is unfortunately a perspective that seems elude the VR community. This study explores how augmenting a manuped exercise (chair-based exercise bike), using an interactive screen-based virtual environment (VE), can change the exercise experience for retirement home residents. It is the first study in a series of studies, initiating an investigation into how to use VR to augment conventional exercise experiences, specifically for the retirement home resident audience. In a larger scope, the ambition is longterm to use VR technology to increase motivation with retirement home residents, to uphold a regular exercise routine. The results showed that a majority of subjects reported to support the VE augmentation and preferred the VE based exercise experience to the conventional exercise. This supports VR as an assisting technology for physical therapy, and suggests the potentiality VE augmented exercises, tailored for retirement home residents.