Development and User Evaluation of a Virtual Rehabilitation System for Wobble Board Balance Training

We have developed a prototype virtual reality based balance training system using a single inertial orientation sensor attached to the upper surface of a wobble board. This input device has been interfaced with an open source computer game known as Neverball. Users can exercise with the system by standing on the wobble board and tilting it to control an on-screen environment. To evaluate the usability our prototype system we undertook a user evaluation study on twelve healthy novice participants. Participants were required to set up the system using an instruction manual and then perform balance exercises with the system. Following this period of exercise a post hoc usability evaluation questionnaire know as VRUSE was completed by participants. Results indicated a high level of usability in all categories evaluated.