Development of Virtual Reality-based Gait Training System Simulating Personal Home Environment

We developed a virtual reality (VR)-based gait training system, which could be used by inpatients to train their gait function in a simulated home environment, to reduce the risk of falling after discharge. The proposed system simulates the home environment on a head-mounted display, in which a user can walk around freely. The system provides visual feedback in the event of a collision with an indoor object such as a wall or furniture, prompting the user to modify his or her gait pattern. We first applied the system to healthy young adults and confirmed the usefulness of visual feedback in reducing the walking time and the number of collisions in the simulated room environment. Further, we applied the system to an inpatient with stroke and lower limb paralysis. The patient performed gait training based on a scenario of daily activity using the VR environment that mimicked his house. Five days of training significantly improved the gait and balance functions of the patient. These results suggest that the proposed system foster attention to the surrounding environment and improve gait function in both healthy participants and patients with stroke.