The Design of Virtual Reality Whole Body Vibration Device and Contents for Improving Cognitive Ability of The elderly

Abstract

In recent years, the aging society has been rapidly progressing as the development of medical technology and the awareness of healthy life have become more important. However, the elderly tend to be passive in their physical and social activities. Considering these environmental factors, proper exercise equipment should be used for them. In case of the whole body vibrator, positive effects for strengthening of the muscular power of the elderly, postural balance, and gait function were verified. For the elderly athletic equipment, considerations are as follows. First, it should be more effective than other programs inducing interest, an active participation and motivating users. Second, there should be no inconvenience of movement and it should be more secure than anything else. In case of exercise program using virtual reality, it is possible to apply various kind of exercise easily and comfortably. However, there are not many virtual reality exercise equipments available that the elderly need. In particular, the research and development of virtual reality whole body vibration devices is underway. In this paper, I propose a whole body vibration device that can interlock with virtual reality contents using whole body vibration device based on existing research. Also, intelligent level system is applied to have positive effect as an exercise. The intelligent level system considerations include deriving the appropriate level function for the game level. That is, it is an application of an efficient automatic level determination system that can automatically determine the level suitable for the exercise ability. First, I propose virtual reality contents suitable for whole body vibration device. Second, the interface is designed to support various senses. Third, it is designed to obtain satisfaction and an achievement as a compensation factor for exercise.