Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a User-friendly and Engaging Virtual Reality Program for Rehabilitation

Abstract

We have developed a user-friendly and engaging virtual reality (VR) program called “Let’s stand up and travel the world!” which is used for performing sitting-down and standing-up rehabilitation exercises. This program allows patients to actively engage in rehabilitation exercises every day with the feeling of traveling while viewing images of landscapes from around the world. Because the achievement levels in the exercise plans are connected to the completeness of the images presented, the program helps patients to actively engage in rehabilitation exercises for long periods without becoming bored (patented). The progress of the program is guided by text and voice on the VR screen and can be executed by gazing at icons or by hand movements (touching virtual icons), achieving a universal design. The effectiveness of using the program as a home rehabilitation program for the elderly was evaluated by asking an experimental participant to perform sitting-down and standing-up exercises. As a result, the participant was able to perform rehabilitation, which involved 30 standing and sitting movements, every day for 7 days. In psychological evaluation using a two-dimensional mood scale–short term (TDMS-ST), the mean scores for the “Level of Vitality,” “Level of Stability,” and “Level of Pleasure” significantly increased after performing the program’s exercises. The results show that the participant felt lively, excited, calm, and relaxed after exercises using the VR program.