Assessment of the usability of an immersive virtual supermarket for the cognitive rehabilitation of elderly patients: A pilot study on young adults

In recent years, the use of virtual reality in rehabilitation has become a topic of growing interest, and many studies showed that virtual environments could represent a promising solution to enhance the cognitive rehabilitation of older patients affected by Mild Cognitive Impairment. This work presents an immersive environment representing a supermarket, developed with the aim of training cognitive capabilities in elderlies showing first symptoms of cognitive decline. The immersive environment — the Virtual Supermarket — has been validated on a sample of healthy subjects; the usability of the system was investigated in order to highlight potential issues that needed to be improved before conducting trials on a frail population. The contributions of sense of presence, cybersickness and enjoyment, as well as spontaneous users' comments, were also taken into account. The results, obtained through both self-reports and objective performance measurements, showed a very good usability of the system. Nonetheless, the clearness of the products and the interaction modalities should be improved before starting a trial with elderly patients.