A Pilot and Feasibility Study of Virtual Reality as Gamified Monitoring Tool for Neurorehabilitation

Abstract

This research work focuses on the collection of indicators (biomarkers) related to the use of virtual reality among participants with different age ranges. The key aim is to monitor participants’ psychomotor skills, especially wrist, elbow, and shoulder movements. All the obtained data have been collected and stored in bimodal form. It is worth mentioning a strong gamification work to achieve a total immersion effect for participants. Likewise, the scenarios must be fun, entertaining to the participant. To obtain these features, two serious games based on medieval sports games such as archery and javelin throw have been developed. To apply these two serious games, the participant uses two wireless actuators, called motion controllers, whose control is based on movement, and virtual reality goggles. The data set is composed of eight normative participants of different ages. Also, these participants at the end of the session answered a complete questionnaire. This survey provides valuable and extrapolate information on the use of virtual reality as a vehicle for monitoring the participant’s psychomotor skills. For this reason, future research works will attempt to adapt it with patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or ALS to carry out longitudinal studies.

This research received funding from grants TEC2016-77791-C4-4-R (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Competitiveness of Spain), and Teca-Park-MonParLoc FGCSIC-CENIE 0348-CIE-6-E (InterReg Programme).