Designing accessible VR games to assist stroke rehabilitation.

Abstract

VR games have become an important part of rehabilitation therapy for stroke survivors particularly to recover limb movements. The success of recovery is dependent on the repetitive movement of limbs over a considerable amount of time. It has been shown that VR game-based rehabilitation can offer promising results for repetitive movements as compared to conventional therapies. To improve the effectiveness of VR games it has been argued that – specifically designed games offer better stroke rehabilitation to keep patients engaged and motivated. This paper presents the development of non-immersive accessible VR games designed for upper limb movements without overloading patients. These games are designed based on the suggestions received from clinicians and physiotherapists. The games provide a non-immersive yet quite engaging environment with real-time scoring of performance. A preliminary test of the games with the exoskeleton robot and discussions are presented.