Head-Mounted Display-Based Application for Cognitive Training

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) has had significant advances in rehabilitation, due to the gamification of cognitive activities that facilitate treatment. On the other hand, Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) produces outstanding results due to the interactive features with the user. This work introduces a VR application for memory rehabilitation by walking through a maze and using the Oculus Go head-mounted display (HMD) technology. The mechanics of the game require memorizing geometric shapes while the player progresses in two modes, autonomous or manual, with two levels of difficulty depending on the number of elements to remember. The application is developed in the Unity 3D video game engine considering the optimization of computational resources to improve the performance in the processing and maintaining adequate benefits for the user, while the generated data is stored and sent to a remote server. The maze task was assessed with 29 subjects in a controlled environment. The obtained results show a significant correlation between participants’ response accuracy in both the maze task and a face–pair test. Thus, the proposed task is able to perform memory assessments.

Mixed Assessment of Virtual Serious Games Applied in Architectural and Urban Design Education

“…Virtually exploring scenes that in reality would not be possible (for example, non-constructed building and/or urban environments) stimulates the student to understand better and memorize the academic content (in the architecture framework, the relation of the proposal with the scale of the environment, the materials, textures, illumination, etc.) [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. However, from programming with Unreal Engine for a visualization system based on the HTC Vive sensor, those negative aspects that diminished comfort and satisfaction in its use have been improved: the feeling of sickness, the quality of textures and materials of the virtual elements (critical for architecture representation), the selection of interactive elements through a new menu, the improvement of the handheld sensor information for decision making, and the relative position of the virtual avatar without changing the real-physical position of the user between the optical sensors of the device.…”

Gamification and Hazard Communication in Virtual Reality: A Qualitative Study

“…The costs of VR consistently decrease as a consequence of the development of low-cost headsets [ 9 ], for example. The use of mobile technology to stimulate emotion, training, education, and health and to evaluate decision-making [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ] has been increasing rapidly. Its use is especially highlighted when the physical presence offers some kind [ 16 ] of risk or extra cost.…”

A Virtual Reality-Based Cognitive Telerehabilitation System for Use in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The use of technology has made it possible to migrate those processes that were previously performed manually into computer-developed interfaces. The implementation of VR environments in the treatment of cognitive diseases has been taking place in recent years as a new alternative to conventional procedures [55,56]. VR therapy has been tested to improve cognitive abilities in people suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, trauma or after a stroke, among others [6,49,57].…”