Activating and educational Mixed Reality apps increasing patients´ motivation for physical exercise and accelerating their spinal cord rehabilitation trajectories.
In co-creation with patients, rehabilitation professionals and a software developer two Mixed Reality (MR) physical exercise games and an MR e-learning module explaining the basic bodily consequences of a spinal cord injury were developed.
An active lifestyle is of great value for persons living with spinal cord injury, but challenging to achieve. Effective counselling about the consequences of the injury to their bodies is essential for long-term health. While conventional education methods have barriers, literature shows that education using XR facilitates the knowledge construction by providing a unique and learner-centered experience that allows students to interact, at their own pace, with the virtual objects.
Furthermore, we hypothesize that the MR games can promote physical activity and increase adherence to exercise.
What makes your project unique?
Our research interest within and around this project is to investigate the added value of Mixed Reality in the world of Spinal Cord Injury rehabilitation. We make a differentiation between information modules and motivating exercise games, both using Mixed Reality glasses (e.g. HoloLens2 by Microsoft©) .
Mixed Reality is a new and very promising technique. It is an immersive technique while users stay in direct contact with the real world. This is an advantage compared to Virtual Reality, which often comes with claustrophobia and nausea.
By using MR in combination with motivational game design, users develop positive attitudes towards learning and physical activity. It helps them to maintain focus and interest. For example, showing anatomy models related to the diagnosis in 3D, helps patients to better understand their disabilities as it resembles the much reality better than conventional 2D learning material. We experience and observe users with high adherence to our games and information modules.
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