Cerebral Palsy

Baggrund

VR holds the potential for providing an engaging environment for exercise - also if you depend on a wheelchair. Our exergaming universe Cosmic Pilot VR provides engaging and accessible VR content for people living with Cerebral Palsy (CP), addressing current limitations of hardware and uninspiring content. Building on an already user-tested beta version and collaborating with researchers in the field, we will create cutting-edge content and experiment with sensory feedback to improve movement and quality of life for our target group. Our goal is to offer a commercially viable solution for a global audience of 16+ million users and increase VR accessibility for those who need it most.

Every year 110-130 kids are diagnosed with CP in Denmark (1-2 of every 1.000 kids). It is estimated that around 8.000-10.000 people are living with CP nationally and 17 million are living with CP globally. CP is caused by a disruption of the brain’s early development, which in more than 90% of cases is congenital.

The brain has the ability and capacity to change (neuroplasticity). Neuroplasticity describes the ability of neurological networks to change through growth and reorganization. The brain is rewired to function in a way which differs from how it has previously functioned. This mechanism shows that the condition of CP can be improved but required specialized knowledge and the correct methods. Research shows that the brain’s neuroplasticity can be particularly affected by physical activity, and as the brain changes, the individuals with CP will become better at controlling their movements.

Citizens with CP are affected to varying degrees by paralysis that limits their physical abilities (degree 1-5, with 5 being the worst). Existing VR games do not take any physical limitations into consideration and are therefore completely or partially impossible to use for citizens with CP. Due to the physical limitations individuals with CP experience, it is necessary to develop a game that allows adaptations and changes in relation to both physical ability and strain. The VR game aims to motivate the individuals’ forward physical development and quality of life by challenging their mobility.

Løsning

Khora created a beta version of the VR game “Cosmic Pilot VR”, designed specifically for people living with CP. The game is designed for Meta Quest headsets, a stand-alone affordable headset. The game takes place in outer space, within the cockpit of a spaceship. The game features three in-game challenges designed to match suitable interactions based on user insights from workshops. The first challenge is collecting gasoline for the spaceship, which requires the player to look around the cockpit and grab blobs of gasoline. This activity powers their spaceship, which enables it to launch into space where they are met with meteors flying towards the spaceship. The player must defend the spaceship with its built-in robot arms by reaching out and crush the meteors. This challenges the player to keep reaching further to get the meteors before they come too close. The third challenge is hostile aliens, where the player shoots laser beams using gaze-control, which targets fine motor skills. Our user research showed that neck movements were the most secure and stable for most of the players, so all navigation options in the game is gaze-controlled. The game requires controllers to track hand movements but none of the interactions within the game requires buttons and does not require the player to hold the controllers in a certain direction, allowing the controllers to be attached to a glove or strap attached to the player's hands.

What makes the game unique is the calibrating phase at the beginning of the game, with red spheres appearing in the cockpit. The player must reach out with their hands to reach the spheres and then new spheres appear. This process informs the game about the player’s range of motion and the game then customizes the level of difficulty to match that specific player’s physical functioning. The game comes in ten levels so players can progress in the game as they improve.

As part of the collaborative process with Jonstrupvang, the beta version of Cosmic Pilot VR will be distributed for free in Denmark to pilot test the solution. The objective of this pilot test is to develop a manual, which describes in detail to assistive workers or family members how to get started with the game and best assist the person with CP when playing. Furthermore, valuable user feedback is collected in the pilot test to help improve the game in later iterations.