Gaming Beyond the Novelty Effect of Immersive Virtual Reality for Physical Rehabilitation

Immersive virtual reality (iVR) head-mounted display (HMD) systems paired with serious exercise games can positively augment physical rehabilitation process from both engagement and analytics perspectives. This article presents a game for iVR HMD-based long-term upper-extremity exercise. We demonstrate the capabilities of our through case study five users recovering injuries. examine how program maintains motivation over eight weeks, where completed biweekly prescribed movements framed as protecting butterfly. assess user experiences mixture biomarkers brainwave, heart rate, galvanic skin response recorded at runtime, well motion capture behavioral data. Our results suggest that was an effective medium in inducing high compliance, performance, biometric changes even increasing difficulty beyond novelty effect period. conclude considerations future work therapy adapt to response.