Supporting Physical and Mental Health Rehabilitation at Home with Virtual Reality Headsets and Force Feedback Gloves

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to worldwide quarantines and telehealth has become the lifeline for patients prone to infection. We propose using a Virtual Reality (VR) system as a playful coping strategy for rehabilitation at home. We hypothesize such a system can improve the physical and mental well-being of the user during play. In this demonstration, we transform the therapy into a playful virtual cat bathing simulation using a VR headset coupled with force feedback gloves. This results in an engaging and feedback-rich scenario where users practice fine motor skills by progressively completing three cat-care tasks.