The Impacts of Incorporating Virtual Reality and Data Gloves in Exergames on Intrinsic Motivation in Upper-Extremity Assessments: A Study in a Young and Healthy Group

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) technology has shown potential as a viable tool for rehabilitation. VR is a well-recognized technology that creates immersive experiences to enhance engagement and encourage more effective participation in activities. In the current study, it has been shown that using a standard VR system setup can effectively increase participant motivation for various rehabilitation applications. However, there is a research gap in terms of participant motivation, relating to the intervention of integrating data gloves into VR to improve visibility in hand tracking for rehabilitation. This study presents and assesses an integrated approach utilizing VR and data glove technology to evaluate upper extremity function in a young, healthy population, comparing this to traditional methods. Participants’ intrinsic motivation was measured using the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI). The findings indicate that the combined immersive environment outperforms conventional practice in most aspects. Therefore, this research also sheds light on the fact that a data glove is promising technology in rehabilitation applications that can augment positive experiences while having no adverse effects on the VR system.