Simulation of a Virtual Reality Environment for Cognitive and Motoric Testing with Unity and a Mechanical Treadmill

Abstract

In many virtual reality applications the movement is done with simple pointing and teleportation to the designated location. On the other side there is a need of combining treadmill walking with virtual reality environments to train participants in demanding but controlled walking scenarios. In this demonstration we therefore combined the VR capabilities of the Oculus Quest system with a mechanical treadmill in order to create a framework for cognitive and motoric testing and training. A test subject has the control over increasing and decreasing the speed at any given time during the experiment. A supervisor can actively communicate with the test subject with simple lines of text and also has the means to intervene in case of emergency.