Overground Walking in a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Study on the Effects on Full-Body Walking Biomechanics

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology offering tremendous opportunities to aid gait rehabilitation. To this date, real walking with users immersed in virtual environments with head-mounted displays (HMDs) is either possible with treadmills or room-scale (overground) VR setups. Especially fo...

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Autores principales:	Brian Horsak , Mark Simonlehner , Lucas Schöffer , Bernhard Dumphart , Arian Jalaeefar , Matthias Husinsky
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	gait analysis virtual environments kinematics kinetics head mounted display biomechanics Biotechnology TP248.13-248.65
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/761be6a2436f4a998e2d4bb918702258
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:761be6a2436f4a998e2d4bb918702258
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:761be6a2436f4a998e2d4bb9187022582021-12-03T05:43:48ZOverground Walking in a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Study on the Effects on Full-Body Walking Biomechanics2296-418510.3389/fbioe.2021.780314https://doaj.org/article/761be6a2436f4a998e2d4bb9187022582021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2021.780314/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/2296-4185Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology offering tremendous opportunities to aid gait rehabilitation. To this date, real walking with users immersed in virtual environments with head-mounted displays (HMDs) is either possible with treadmills or room-scale (overground) VR setups. Especially for the latter, there is a growing interest in applications for interactive gait training as they could allow for more self-paced and natural walking. This study investigated if walking in an overground VR environment has relevant effects on 3D gait biomechanics. A convenience sample of 21 healthy individuals underwent standard 3D gait analysis during four randomly assigned walking conditions: the real laboratory (RLab), a virtual laboratory resembling the real world (VRLab), a small version of the VRlab (VRLab−), and a version which is twice as long as the VRlab (VRLab+). To immerse the participants in the virtual environment we used a VR-HMD, which was operated wireless and calibrated in a way that the virtual labs would match the real-world. Walking speed and a single measure of gait kinematic variability (GaitSD) served as primary outcomes next to standard spatio-temporal parameters, their coefficients of variant (CV%), kinematics, and kinetics. Briefly described, participants demonstrated a slower walking pattern (−0.09 ± 0.06 m/s) and small accompanying kinematic and kinetic changes. Participants also showed a markedly increased gait variability in lower extremity gait kinematics and spatio-temporal parameters. No differences were found between walking in VRLab+ vs. VRLab−. Most of the kinematic and kinetic differences were too small to be regarded as relevant, but increased kinematic variability (+57%) along with increased percent double support time (+4%), and increased step width variability (+38%) indicate gait adaptions toward a more conservative or cautious gait due to instability induced by the VR environment. We suggest considering these effects in the design of VR-based overground training devices. Our study lays the foundation for upcoming developments in the field of VR-assisted gait rehabilitation as it describes how VR in overground walking scenarios impacts our gait pattern. This information is of high relevance when one wants to develop purposeful rehabilitation tools.Brian Horsak Mark Simonlehner Lucas Schöffer Bernhard Dumphart Arian Jalaeefar Matthias Husinsky Frontiers Media S.A.articlegait analysisvirtual environmentskinematicskineticshead mounted displaybiomechanicsBiotechnologyTP248.13-248.65ENFrontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Vol 9 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	gait analysis virtual environments kinematics kinetics head mounted display biomechanics Biotechnology TP248.13-248.65
spellingShingle	gait analysis virtual environments kinematics kinetics head mounted display biomechanics Biotechnology TP248.13-248.65 Brian Horsak Mark Simonlehner Lucas Schöffer Bernhard Dumphart Arian Jalaeefar Matthias Husinsky Overground Walking in a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Study on the Effects on Full-Body Walking Biomechanics
description	Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology offering tremendous opportunities to aid gait rehabilitation. To this date, real walking with users immersed in virtual environments with head-mounted displays (HMDs) is either possible with treadmills or room-scale (overground) VR setups. Especially for the latter, there is a growing interest in applications for interactive gait training as they could allow for more self-paced and natural walking. This study investigated if walking in an overground VR environment has relevant effects on 3D gait biomechanics. A convenience sample of 21 healthy individuals underwent standard 3D gait analysis during four randomly assigned walking conditions: the real laboratory (RLab), a virtual laboratory resembling the real world (VRLab), a small version of the VRlab (VRLab−), and a version which is twice as long as the VRlab (VRLab+). To immerse the participants in the virtual environment we used a VR-HMD, which was operated wireless and calibrated in a way that the virtual labs would match the real-world. Walking speed and a single measure of gait kinematic variability (GaitSD) served as primary outcomes next to standard spatio-temporal parameters, their coefficients of variant (CV%), kinematics, and kinetics. Briefly described, participants demonstrated a slower walking pattern (−0.09 ± 0.06 m/s) and small accompanying kinematic and kinetic changes. Participants also showed a markedly increased gait variability in lower extremity gait kinematics and spatio-temporal parameters. No differences were found between walking in VRLab+ vs. VRLab−. Most of the kinematic and kinetic differences were too small to be regarded as relevant, but increased kinematic variability (+57%) along with increased percent double support time (+4%), and increased step width variability (+38%) indicate gait adaptions toward a more conservative or cautious gait due to instability induced by the VR environment. We suggest considering these effects in the design of VR-based overground training devices. Our study lays the foundation for upcoming developments in the field of VR-assisted gait rehabilitation as it describes how VR in overground walking scenarios impacts our gait pattern. This information is of high relevance when one wants to develop purposeful rehabilitation tools.
format	article
author	Brian Horsak Mark Simonlehner Lucas Schöffer Bernhard Dumphart Arian Jalaeefar Matthias Husinsky
author_facet	Brian Horsak Mark Simonlehner Lucas Schöffer Bernhard Dumphart Arian Jalaeefar Matthias Husinsky
author_sort	Brian Horsak
title	Overground Walking in a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Study on the Effects on Full-Body Walking Biomechanics
title_short	Overground Walking in a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Study on the Effects on Full-Body Walking Biomechanics
title_full	Overground Walking in a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Study on the Effects on Full-Body Walking Biomechanics
title_fullStr	Overground Walking in a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Study on the Effects on Full-Body Walking Biomechanics
title_full_unstemmed	Overground Walking in a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Study on the Effects on Full-Body Walking Biomechanics
title_sort	overground walking in a fully immersive virtual reality: a comprehensive study on the effects on full-body walking biomechanics
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/761be6a2436f4a998e2d4bb918702258
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Overground Walking in a Fully Immersive Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Study on the Effects on Full-Body Walking Biomechanics

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