Manipulation of Virtual Environment to Examine Perception and Vision Aspects of Individuals Post-Stroke When Driving VRAC Simulator

Abstract

Individuals post-stroke suffer deficiency of motor function and need more effort to exercise using cycling therapy. Virtual reality augmented cycling (VRAC) that incorporate compensatory strategies such as manipulation of virtual environment (VE) may change motor behaviour and increase exercise intensity while also being engaging and motivating. In this research, we try to examine perception and vision aspects of individuals post-stroke that affect the user interface to a VE when driving a VRAC by manipulating VE features such as gain related with human perception, and width and difficulty of path related with human vision. To examine those aspects, we divided two groups, namely healthy sedentary control (n=3) as reference and individuals post-stroke (n=7). From the examination results, it was obtained that both groups had given a good enough response to manipulation of VE features although there were no significant differences to individuals post-stroke when driving VRAC in wide path conditions. Manipulation of VE features affect cycling behaviours for individuals post-stroke and assist to transfer visual information in real world to virtual world for development of post-stroke rehabilitation using VRAC system.