Development and psychological effects of a VR device rehabilitation program: Art program with feed back system reflecting achievement levels in rehabilitation exercises

Abstract

We developed an art program that connects rehabilitation exercises with the creation of art. The level of rehabilitation exercise achieved in the outcome of the resulting artwork is reflected as feedback to encourage patients to perform their rehabilitation exercises. The art program is called “Let’s stand up and draw art in the sky!” and utilizes a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display device to create a landscape image in the device’s display area, through the movements of sitting down and standing up. A squat exercise experiment was conducted with and without the art program, using university student subjects, and the results were compared between the two trials. When the subjects used the program, they reported a significant increase in the “Level of Vitality” and the “Level of Pleasure”, compared to when they performed the exercises without the art program.