Basic Study on Virtual Walking System for Mentally and Physically Handicapped Persons to Enjoy Its Experiences on Their Beds

Abstract

Mentally and physically handicapped persons mainly live only on their beds, and have very few opportunities to go and see outside of a facility. Technologies of virtual reality have possibilities to enhance their quality of life, but such approaches have not been reported enough. Therefore, we have investigated the way to recognize intentions of them, and stimulate senses of feet. We developed two types sensors for finger and face motions to detect users' intention. Several kinds of games were used to motivate user's motions. The results shows the evidences of the intentions for two out of five subjects. Additionally we proposed electric stimulations to enhance the feeling of walking. Preliminary experiments for a healthy subject were conducted. As results, the subject could discriminate two different patterns for a front and back walking.