Design and Evaluation of Virtual Reality Exergames for People Living with Dementia
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Date
2018-08-31
Authors
Eisapour, Mahzar
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
Dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease are a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with
consequences such as cognitive impairment and memory problems. While exercise is important to
improve physical health and quality of life for people living with dementia (PWD), symptom-induced
challenges, such as language processing and physical limitations, can make it more difficult for PWD
to engage in exercise. In this study, exercise games (exergames) to promote exercise for PWD were
designed in two virtual environments: a farm and a gym. To design the activities and interfaces of the
games, a participatory design approach was followed with exercise therapists, kinesiologists, and PWD
from Schlegel Villages long-term care facility. Five upper-body motions were selected and five
corresponding activities developed for each game. The games were built for the Oculus Rift CV1 head
mounted display virtual reality (HMD-VR) as this platform uses a fully immersive three-dimensional
display with high frame rate display. The touch controllers of Oculus were used to provide hand-motion
interactions in virtual reality (VR).
A three-week evaluation experiment was conducted with six PWD to evaluate the designed exercise
games. A mixed-methods approach was used to qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the impact
of using designed HMD-VR exergames in engaging PWD in exercise. Questionnaires for participants
recorded participants’ feelings of enjoyment, engagement, interest, easiness, comfort, and level of
effort. Clinical measurements of fitness parameters and recorded motion parameters from sensors in
Oculus Rift provided quantifiable metrics such as range of motion (ROM), distance traversed, speed,
grip strength, and shoulder circumduction for evaluation.
All the participants successfully completed the exercise using the exergames, demonstrating the
promising potential of using HMD-VR for PWD. The analysis of the participants’ answers to the
questionnaires shows subjective metrics for human-guided exercise is comparable to VR games
conditions, which is a noteworthy result considering the novelty of using VR for PWD. Overall, the
analysis of motion parameters showed no differences between environments, which indicates the
participants’ level of movment in VR environments was as good as with human-lead exercise. This thesis
research demonstrates the potential of HMD-VR as an engaging way to support exercise of PWD.
Description
Keywords
Virtual Reality, Exergame, Serious Game, Dementia, Game Design, Physical Activity, Motivation, Human Computer Interaction, User Experience