Immersive Virtual Reality and Gamification Evaluation on Treadmill Exercise by Using Electrophysiological Monitoring Device

Abstract

CCS CONCEPTS • Lack of physical activity is a severe problem that can potentially cause various of diseases. Cardiovascular exercise, for instance, treadmill exercise is the most common activities to improve body’s health and performance. However, monotone exercise tends to induce boredom which affects the emotional state of the person. Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) and Gamification offer a promising opportunity to improve traditional treadmill exercise to become more fun and enjoyable. This research aimed to evaluate the effect of immersive virtual reality on stress load or emotional state of person while doing treadmill exercise. This study involved 24 healthy participants to compare the immersive program with the traditional treadmill exercise. The result showed that participants had significant improvement of enjoyment, satisfaction and motivation in VR condition compared to the traditional one. They experienced higher positive emotion and less pressured while doing the exercise. These results are promising for a successful implementation of immersive VR application on treadmill exercise; • CCS CONCEPTS; • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI); HCI design and evaluation methods; Laboratory experiment;