Wearable Haptics in a Modern VR Rehabilitation System: Design Comparison for Usability and Engagement

Modern immersive virtual reality (VR) systems include embedded hand tracking, stand-alone and wireless operation, fast donning and calibration: these features are precious for usability of rehabilitation serious games in the clinical practice, envisaging also home-care applications. Can wearable haptics well integrate with the above features? Different designs result in a trade-off between wearability and richness of feedback. Yet, engagement of the user is also one of the key-features for rehabilitation serious games. We developed two novel fingertip devices aiming the first at lightweight and wearability, the second at rich and powerful cutaneous feedback. We compared the two designs in terms of usability and users’ engagement within a modern rehabilitation system in immersive VR.