Comparative evaluation of virtual reality setups for assessing cervical range of motion: a reliability study
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Cervical pain is a highly prevalent musculoskeletal condition, affecting an estimated 222 million people globally. There is a clear need for novel technologies that enable more accessible and affordable care delivery for this population. Assessing the Cervical Range of Motion (CROM) of the patient is a necessary step before designing a treatment plan, and periodically during treatment to monitor patient progress. This study analyzes the use of three VR setups (HTC Vive Pro Eye, HP Reverb G2, and Meta Quest 2) for CROM assessment, representing high-end, mid-range, and low-end devices. 94 individual assessment sessions were conducted by the same rater using a custom-designed VR application. This application simulates a medical environment and guides users through the required neck movements while storing tracking data for later analysis. Intra-rater reliability, measured by the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, ranged from good to excellent for all setups: 0.81 $$-$$ 0.96 for HTC Vive Pro Eye, 0.92 $$-$$ 0.93 for Meta Quest 2, and 0.89 $$-$$ 0.94 for HP Reverb G2. The low-cost options presented slightly higher ICC than the high-end setup, although this difference was not statistically significant. The HMD physical design, weight distribution, and gripping mechanisms had a larger impact on the reliability than the tracking technology used. An anonymous survey showed high usability scores for all three devices. These findings support VR technology as a reliable and user-friendly tool for CROM assessment and show that low-cost devices can be used without compromising reliability or usability.
Source: Virtual Reality
Language: English
Subfield: Human-Computer Interaction
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,990
Award: G6977057569
OpenAlex ID: W7117417618