Virtual reality for post-stroke rehabilitation: user studies and game development

• Autor(a) principal: Serra, Helder Augusto Paraense de Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/33729
• topic: Virtual reality; User-centered design; Stroke; Rehabilitation; Hand tracking; Focus group

Stroke is one of the leading causes of disability and death in the world, and rehabilitation is a relevant part of the life of stroke survivors. Physical therapy is necessary to recover some movement during the acute phase, but also to maintain muscle strength and avoid deterioration and weakness during the chronic phase. The global pandemic caused shortages of rehabilitation activities, and Virtual Reality (VR) games could be used as a complementary type of therapy for stroke rehabilitation to be used at home. This dissertation proposes a user study to better understand the needs and preferences of stroke survivors and the development of game prototypes to better ascertain the potential of VR-based serious games. With this goal, a Questionnaire and a Focus Group were done with survivors, and based on their results, two VR-based game prototypes were developed, focused on the movements that survivors need to perform as well as providing an equivalent to Mirror Therapy. This study found that stroke survivors in chronic stage are more interested in applications based on real-world activities, especially activities they used to perform before the onset symptoms. Negative feedback is also an issue they prefer to avoid based on mental health conditions commonly associated with stroke. The game prototypes were tested concerning usability and were scored high with healthy participants on the System Usability Scale when performed normally, but low when their movements were mirrored, though perhaps survivors are more used to this kind of exercise. The performance of the game prototypes needs improvement, but they were considered easy to use and to learn. The next step will be an evaluation of the improved versions by stroke survivors.