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Abstract
This study explored how a Head Mounted Display (HMD)-experienced virtual environment influences physical balance of six balance-impaired adults, 59-69 years of age, when compared to a control group of eight non-balance-impaired adults, 18-28 years of age. The setup included a Microsoft Kinect and a bespoke balance board controlling a virtual reality skiing game. Two tests were conducted: full-vision versus blindfolded and HMD versus monitor display. Results indicate that five of the six balance-impaired adults and six of the eight non-balance-impaired adults showed higher degree of postural stability while using a monitor display. The conclusions are that HMDs, used in this context, leads to postural instability.
Keywords: HMD, Oculus Rift, postural stability, rehabilitation
Introduction
Research exploring virtual reality (VR) in healthcare has increased over recent decades with widespread adoption in treatment by professionals evident. A recent development in this field is the Oculus Rift (OR) head mounted display (HMD) developed by the US company Oculus VR(TM). A main characteristic of the OR is its ability to track head movements to allow the user to seamlessly look around the virtual world. The difference between the HMDs mentioned in related work and the OR is that the latter blocks the peripheral vision completely. Furthermore, the OR offers a field-of-view of 90 degrees for each eye, almost twice as much as anything else on the market, resulting in a fully-immersive 3D experience (1). For this study, a developer kit OR unit with a resolution of 640 x 800 pixels per eye was used (2).
The primary objective of this study was to investigate how a virtual reality environment (VE), displayed with an OR, impacted balance-impaired adults, aged 59-69, in a control group compared to non-balance-impaired adults, aged 18-28. The setup comprised of (a) a bespoke balance board that controls an animated virtual reality skiing game, especially designed for OR viewing; (b) Microsoft Kinect (camera-based motion sensing device) to measure the angle of sway; and (c) the OR.
Balance and the sensory systems
According to (3), balance is a concept used to define the interaction between different domains (mechanics, physiology, anatomy, sociology, and psychology). The main points of interest are human stability and sensory systems.
Human stability can be defined as the inherent ability of a person to...