Immersive Environment for Occupational Therapy: Pilot Study

• Autor(a) principal: Rodrigues, José
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Coelho, Tiago, Menezes, Paulo, Restivo, Maria Teresa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/106162; https://doi.org/10.3390/info11090405
• topic: virtual reality; serious games; user experience; active ageing; occupational therapy

There has been increasing interest in the application of virtual reality (VR) to occupational therapy and rehabilitation fields. This work presents a VR-based city adventure framework designed for occupational therapy. Its concept is based on taking the user to travel around a virtual city, where the motion is powered by the execution of some type of physical exercise, namely cycling in the current example. This framework is extensible and may integrate di erent goals focused on improving/maintaining motor and cognitive skills necessary for daily activities, mainly through upper and lower limb exercises and mental challenges. This led to the development of an immersive system, which was tested with an elderly sample (15 participants) in a day center and at a retirement home. Usability, satisfaction, performance and side e ects were evaluated to understand future applicability and work directions.