An oculus rift based exergame to improve awareness in disabled people

In this paper we present an exergame, based on the Oculus Rift head-mounted-display, with the aim of improving spatial awareness in young people with cognitive deficits. The scope is to create a virtual environment that should be immersive, and should allow a natural human-computer interaction, without creating discomfort to the users. The exergame is simple, since the aim of the present work is not to create a photo-realistic scenario, but a familiar environment in which to play and exercise cognitive abilities. To measure and track the movements of the users' legs, in order to simulate the walking in the environment in a safe way, an additional sensor, the Playstation Move, has been embedded into the system. Finally, the system has been tested with some disabled subjects, who confirmed the usability of the exergame and a general positive feeling with such an immersive virtual reality.