A Prototype Virtual Reality Rehabilitation Game for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

A prototype virtual reality (VR) game for use in rehabilitation programmes for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) has been developed. The game uses a ‘catch and throw’ mechanic with a transposed ‘handiness’ control system. The game activities reflect ‘mirror therapy’ which is used to help patients learn to re-use their affected limbs. The game was developed with the Unity game engine and is played with the HTC Vive VR system. It was evaluated by thirty members of staff and students (age range 18-40+) form Birmingham City University (UK) using the System Usability Scale (SUS). The volunteer testers were differentiated into two groups, regular gamers (n=11) who played several times of day, daily or several times a week and less frequent gamers (n=16) who only played a few times a month or once a month. One person did not provide this information and two could not be classified clearly into either group and were therefore exclude from the analysis. Each group was standardized with results presented based upon the percentage of respondents within each group who answered either ‘agree/strongly agree’ or ‘disagree / strongly disagree’ to the SUS statements. Less frequent gamers (63%) said they would play the game frequently whereas 45% of the regular gamers said they would. Less frequent games (63%) thought the game was easy to use where as only 36% of regular gamers thought so. Ninety one percent of regular gamers and 75% of less frequent gamers said they thought people would find the game easy to learn. Seventy-five percent of less frequent gamers and 64% of regular gamers did not think the game was unnecessarily complex. Fifty-six percent of less frequent gamers and 36% of regular gamers said they did not find the game very cumbersome to use however the current control system should be refined as some found collecting the virtual balls difficult. This study records the systematic development of a prototype for a virtual reality based rehabilitation game. Despite some initial minor usability issues the game is playable and can be used to facilitate usability evaluations with CRPS patients