Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture

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VR Landscapes for Therapy of Gait Insecurity

Therapy of gait insecurity is usually a lengthy and laborious process, which requires a high level of motivation and willpower on the part of the patients. The aim is to return the patients to a level of confidence for everyday life by providing therapy sessions that promote dual-task performance and support patient motivation. This can be fostered by integrating everyday situations into physiotherapies. In the presented study, a prototype involving virtual reality (VR) technologies was designed for gait insecurity therapy. It has been shown that this approach has the potential to be used in the healing process. An immersive 3D point cloud-based application was developed and tested in a between-design study with gait insecure patients during daily half hour therapy sessions over a period of two weeks. Patients saw the VR environment in a head-mounted display. By walking in the physical space, they moved through the virtual scene following the topography to cross streets, climb stairs or ramps. The results revealed a noticeable difference between the VR therapy patients and the standard therapy patients with the VR therapy patients having greater improvement of gait speed, as well as general mobility status. Further, a higher motivation was shown by patients using the VR application. The prototype should be further enhanced and its effectiveness should be analyzed more rigorously. The effects of a wider range of day-to-day situations as well as of restorative environments should be further investigated.

Autor / Author: Schalbetter, Laura; Wissen Hayek, Ulrike; Gutscher, Fabian; Grêt-Regamey, Adrienne
Institution / Institution: ETH Zurich, Zurich/Switzerland; ETH Zurich, Zurich/Switzerland; ETH Zurich, Zurich/Switzerland; ETH Zurich, Zurich/Switzerland
Seitenzahl / Pages: 10
Sprache / Language: Englisch
Veröffentlichung / Publication: JoDLA – Journal of Digital Landscape Architecture, 7-2022
Tagung / Conference: Digital Landscape Architecture 2022 – Hybrid Landscapes
Veranstaltungsort, -datum / Venue, Date: Harvard University, Cambridge Mass, USA 09-06-22 - 10-06-22
Schlüsselwörter (de):
Keywords (en): Virtual Reality, 3D point clouds, Unity, patients with gait instability, VR therapy
Paper review type: Full Paper Review
DOI: doi:10.14627/537724034
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