Stepping over Obstacles with Augmented Reality based on Visual Exproprioception

The purpose of this study is to analyze the different kinds of exproprioceptive visual cues on an Augmented Reality (AR) system during gait exercise, on top of understanding which cues provide the best visualizations in stepping over obstacles. The main problem for users is to understand the position of virtual objects relative to themselves. Since visual exproprioception provides information about the body position in relation to the environment, it has the possibility to yield positive effects with regards to position control and gait biomechanics in the AR system. This research was born as part of the collaboration with the staff of Takanohara Central Hospital in Japan. Twenty-seven individuals were invited to take part in the user study to test three visual interfaces. The task of the mentioned user study involves making the subjects cross and avoid virtual obstacles of different heights that come from different directions. The AR application was implemented in the experiment by using the Head-Mounted Display (HMD) Microsoft HoloLens. Data obtained from the experiment revealed that the interface projected in front of the user from a third-person point of view resulted to improvements in terms of posture, visual stimuli, and safety.