DOES VIEWING TILTING VR IMAGES CHANGE THE CENTER-OF-GRAVITY SWAY IN THE SITTING POSITION?

T. Watanabe¹, N. Maeda¹, M. Komiya¹, K. Fukui², K. Tsuchida¹, T. Terada¹, Y. Urabe¹

¹Hiroshima University, Department of Sports Rehabilitation, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima City, Japan, ²Japan Para Badminton Federation, Edogawa-ku, Japan

Background: In recent years, Virtual Reality (VR) technology has made significant progress, and its application in the medical field has been increasing, such as balance training. VR image with a tilted field of vision in a static standing position increases the amount of center-of-pressure sway (Urabe et al., 2022). This result suggests the effectiveness of balance training in a standing position using the VR image. Balance training in a seated position is desirable for those who have difficulty maintaining a standing position. However, it’s unknown that amount of center-of-gravity (COG) sway when viewing the VR image with a tilted view of vision in the sitting position.

Purpose: This study aimed to confirm whether the amount of COG sway changes by viewing VR images that tilted the field of vision in a sitting position.

Methods: Eleven healthy adults (5 males and 6 females) were participated in the study. Participants maintained an edge-sitting position, and performed 4 conditions; static sitting position, in the 10 degrees tilt of the seat surface, in the VR image tilted 10 degrees, and in the VR image tilted 30 degrees. The amount of COG sway was measured by using a Stabilometer (T.K.K. 5810, Takei Scientific Instruments Co., Ltd.). In the VR condition, the participants wore a head-mounted display (HMD; Oculus, Meta) and viewed VR images. The VR images were created by tilt at a rate of 1 degree/second. For statistical analysis, one-way ANOVA and post-hoc tests were used to compare the amount of COG sway among any conditions. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05.

Results: The amount of COG sway was in the static sitting position (0.03±0.70 mm), in the 10 degrees tilt of the seat surface condition (42.74±10.80 mm), in the VR image tilted 10 degrees (0.51±0.94 mm), in the VR image tilted 30 degrees (3.73±4.73 mm). The amount of COG sway was in the static sitting position and in the VR image tilted 30 degrees, with significantly larger in the VR image tilted 30 degrees. The COG for the 10 degrees tilt of the seat surface condition moved significantly more than in other conditions (p<0.05); in static sitting position, the VR image tilted 10 degrees, and the VR image tilted 30 degrees.

Conclusions: We found that viewing the VR image tilted 30 degrees caused the amount of COG sway larger than in the static sitting position. The reason for this may be that the wearer of the HMD experienced a visually induced self-motion sensation (vection), in which the subject feels as if the subject is moving by changing the visual information (Gibson, 1968). While 10 degrees tilt of the seat surface suggests a risk of falling, viewing the VR image that is tilted by 30 degrees is safe and convenient. This study suggests that viewing the VR image in which the view is tilted in the sitting position may assist in balance training.

Implications: Our findings suggest that viewing the VR image tilted 30 degrees may be useful for balance training even in the sitting position.

Funding acknowledgements: We have no funding acknowledgement in this study.

Keywords:
Center-of-gravity sway
VR image
Balance training

Topics:
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Hiroshima University

Committee: The Ethical Committee for Epidemiology of Hiroshima University

Ethics number: E-2299