Redirected Walking within a VR Exergame for Return-to-Sports Screening

Abstract

Sports rehabilitation exercises and return-to-sports screening are typically conducted in confined spaces that lack the highly motivating environments found in stadiums filled with people. Virtual Reality (VR) can be employed to virtually recreate those settings. A challenge in VR sports is that running exercises with six degrees of freedom can pose a risk due to potential collisions with obstacles. Redirected walking addresses this issue by utilizing techniques that adjust the user's virtual motion in relation to their physical motion. This study evaluates the established positive perceptual bounds of redirected walking and extends its application to a reaction-based exercise. In this proposed use case, the user must chase the ball from one point to another in the room. Our findings indicate that rotational manipulations impact user experience at +44% rotation, which is stricter than the established +49% rotation bound. For translational manipulations, our research shows that the established +26% translational bound can be extended to +41% without a significant difference in self-reported subjective experience. This study demonstrates that redirected walking manipulations do not lead to significant changes in participants' total reaction times. In conclusion, the findings of this study illustrate that redirected walking techniques, with careful consideration of the bounds on rotational and translational manipulations, can be effectively applied in a Virtual Reality exergame designed for return-to-sports screening. This offers a more engaging alternative to traditional rehabilitation environments.