Year: 2018
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease are a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with \nconsequences such as cognitive impairment and memory problems. While exercise is important to \nimprove physical health and quality of life for people living with dementia (PWD), symptom-induced \nchallenges, such as language processing and physical limitations, can make it more difficult for PWD \nto engage in exercise. In this study, exercise games (exergames) to promote exercise for PWD were \ndesigned in two virtual environments: a farm and a gym. To design the activities and interfaces of the \ngames, a participatory design approach was followed with exercise therapists, kinesiologists, and PWD \nfrom Schlegel Villages long-term care facility. Five upper-body motions were selected and five \ncorresponding activities developed for each game. The games were built for the Oculus Rift CV1 head \nmounted display virtual reality (HMD-VR) as this platform uses a fully immersive three-dimensional \ndisplay with high frame rate display. The touch controllers of Oculus were used to provide hand-motion \ninteractions in virtual reality (VR). \nA three-week evaluation experiment was conducted with six PWD to evaluate the designed exercise \ngames. A mixed-methods approach was used to qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the impact \nof using designed HMD-VR exergames in engaging PWD in exercise. Questionnaires for participants \nrecorded participants’ feelings of enjoyment, engagement, interest, easiness, comfort, and level of \neffort. Clinical measurements of fitness parameters and recorded motion parameters from sensors in \nOculus Rift provided quantifiable metrics such as range of motion (ROM), distance traversed, speed, \ngrip strength, and shoulder circumduction for evaluation. \nAll the participants successfully completed the exercise using the exergames, demonstrating the \npromising potential of using HMD-VR for PWD. The analysis of the participants’ answers to the \nquestionnaires shows subjective metrics for human-guided exercise is comparable to VR games \nconditions, which is a noteworthy result considering the novelty of using VR for PWD. Overall, the \nanalysis of motion parameters showed no differences between environments, which indicates the \nparticipants’ level of movment in VR environments was as good as with human-lead exercise. This thesis \nresearch demonstrates the potential of HMD-VR as an engaging way to support exercise of PWD.
Source: UWSpace (University of Waterloo)
Author: Mahzar Eisapour
Language: English
Subfield: Human-Computer Interaction
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2901810761