The purpose of this study is to compare the difference in lower extremity muscle activity according to walking condition with real environment and virtual reality and found the effect of virtual reality walking condition over time.
The participants of this study were 15 male university students attending S University in Busan who heard an explanation about this study and voluntarily agreed to participate. Those with photosensitive or discomfort due to undressing were excluded, and those who understood the researcher's instructions and voluntarily participated were selected. The experiment was conducted in a real environment with two conditions on a treadmill: walking at an incline of 0 degrees (flat) and 10 degrees (slope) Afterward, participants wore VR headset(Vive pro 2 headset, Vive) and walked on a 0-degree incline treadmill while viewing a visual simulation of a 10-degree slope (Walking simulator, Steam) and repeated after 10 minute and 30-minute rest intervals. All walking is done at 4 km/h for 1 minute and 30 seconds, followed by a 3-minute rest(in the real environment) and the participants were instructed to hold the safety bar while wearing VR. To measure the participants' muscle activity, an electromyography device (4DMT, BrownSrping, Korea) was used to measure the MVIC (maximum voluntary isometric contraction) of the rectus femoris, biceps femoris, tibialis anterior, and gastrocnemius, and then muscle activity during walking was measured.
The collected data was analyzed using SPSS Win. Ver. 29.0. ANOVA assess muscle activity according to walking conditions, and paired t-tests compared 0 and 10 degrees in real environments and 10 degrees between real and VR environments. ANOVA assessed muscle activity differences over time in the VR environment. Significance was set at p0.05
The rectus femoris, gastrocnemius showed a statistically significant increase between 0 degree and 10 degree in real environment walking condition(p0.05). There was no significant difference between 10 degree walking condition in real environment and virtual reality 10 degree walking condition. There was no statistically significant change in the muscle activity of each muscle during walking immediately after, 10 minutes after, and 30 minutes after wearing VR.
we confirmed that the effect of walking condition either real environment or virtual reality environment was no significant difference of lower extremity muscle activation.
In case of real environment, various walking training may be difficult to perform due to limit of weather, individual health condition, place. To design exercise program for the maintaining and strengthening the muscle of the lower extremity, the virtual reality program will be more available. Others of benefit in virtual reality program can expand for improving health condition and rehabilitation field.
real environment
walking condition
