Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games
Date Submitted: Mar 29, 2021
Date Accepted: May 19, 2021
Development of a search task using immersive virtual reality: a proof of concept
ABSTRACT
Background:
Serious games are gaining increasing importance in neurorehabilitation since they increase motivation and adherence to therapy, thereby potentially improving its outcome. The benefits of serious games, such as the possibility to implement adaptive feedback and the calculation of comparable performance measures, can be even further improved by using immersive virtual reality (iVR), allowing a more intuitive interaction with training devices and higher ecological validity.
Objective:
To develop a visual search task embedded in a serious game setting for iVR, including self-adapting difficulty scaling, thus being able to adjust to the needs and ability levels of different groups of individuals.
Methods:
In a two-step process, a serious game in iVR (bird-search task) was developed and tested in healthy young (n=21) and elderly (n=23) participants, and in a group of patients with impaired visual exploration behaviour (i.e., patients with hemispatial neglect after right-hemispheric stroke; n=11). Usability, side effects, game experience, immersion and presence of the iVR serious game were assessed by validated questionnaires. Moreover, in the group of stroke patients, the performance in the iVR serious game was also considered with respect to hemispatial neglect severity, as assessed by established measures of the latter.
Results:
In all three groups, reported usability of the iVR serious game was above 4.5 (on a one to five Likert scale) and reported side effects were infrequent and of low intensity (below 1.5 on a one to four Likert scale). All three groups equally judged the iVR serious game as highly motivating and entertaining. Performance in the game (in terms of mean search time) showed a lateralized increase in search time in patients with hemispatial neglect, varying as a function of the severity of the latter.
Conclusions:
The developed iVR serious game "bird-search task" has shown to be a motivating, entertaining, and immersive task, which can, due to its adaptive difficulty scaling, adjust and be played by different populations with different levels of skills, including individuals with cognitive impairments. As a complementary finding, it seems that the performance in the game is able to capture typical patterns of impaired visual exploration behavior in hemispatial neglect, correlating with the results of established measures of the latter. Clinical Trial: none
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