Okubo Yoshiro, He Yixuan, Brodie Matthew A, Hicks Cameron, van Schooten Kim, Lovell Nigel H, Anstey Kaarin J, Lord Stephen R, Kim Juno
Falls, Balance and Injury Research Centre, Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia; School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Ageing Futures Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Falls, Balance and Injury Research Centre, Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia; School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Appl Ergon. 2025 May;125:104442. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2024.104442. Epub 2024 Dec 16.
Fall injuries resulting from trips are a major health concern. Virtual reality (VR) offers an effective way of training obstacle avoidance while walking due to its ability to provide safe and meaningful real-time feedback during rehabilitation. This proof-of-concept study examined the benefit of providing physical feedback during obstacle avoidance gait training using VR.
Twenty-six young adults walked on an instrumented treadmill while wearing a head-mounted display in two 8-min conditions. Virtual obstacles to be avoided were presented in a VR-only condition and a VR + Perturbation (VR + P) condition where additional rapid belt acceleration simulated tripping on an obstacle.
A lower obstacle collision rate, greater step length and height of the leading foot over the obstacles were found in the VR + P condition compared to the VR-only condition (p < 0.05). Step height of the trailing foot over the obstacles significantly decreased over time during the VR-only condition (p < 0.01) but not during the VR + P condition. The margin of stability significantly improved over time during the VR + P condition only (p < 0.01).
Immediate physical feedback via treadmill belt acceleration can improve obstacle avoidance performance in a virtual environment. Future research is required to examine the generalizability of this finding to other populations and real-world falls.
因绊倒导致的跌倒受伤是一个主要的健康问题。虚拟现实（VR）由于其在康复过程中能够提供安全且有意义的实时反馈，为步行时的避障训练提供了一种有效的方法。这项概念验证研究探讨了在使用VR进行避障步态训练期间提供物理反馈的益处。
26名年轻成年人在两种8分钟的情况下，戴着头戴式显示器在装有仪器的跑步机上行走。在仅VR条件和VR + 扰动（VR + P）条件下呈现要避开的虚拟障碍物，其中额外的快速皮带加速模拟在障碍物上绊倒。
与仅VR条件相比，在VR + P条件下发现障碍物碰撞率更低，前脚越过障碍物的步长和高度更大（p < 0.05）。在仅VR条件下，后脚越过障碍物的步高随时间显著降低（p < 0.01），但在VR + P条件下没有。仅在VR + P条件下，稳定性 margin 随时间显著改善（p < 0.01）。
通过跑步机皮带加速提供即时物理反馈可改善虚拟环境中的避障性能。需要进一步的研究来检验这一发现对其他人群和现实世界跌倒情况的普遍性。
