ADAPT - Empowering Healthcare Professionals to Tailor Collaborative VR-Games for Stroke Recovery
Stroke affects millions of people worldwide, often resulting in severe physical and cognitive limitations that impact daily life. Rehabilitation is essential for improving stroke survivors' quality of life, yet traditional methods face significant limitations, including repetitive exercises, lack of personalization, and minimal social interaction. These constraints can lead to disengagement, isolation, and even depression, ultimately hindering recovery. To address these challenges, we propose ADAPT, a framework that enables healthcare professionals to personalize collaborative Virtual Reality (VR) serious games for stroke rehabilitation. It is possible to tailor rehabilitation sessions by adjusting key parameters, such as the number of participants, game selection and sequencing, session durations, and goal difficulty. Additionally, the system can incorporate familiar objects and locations to enhance emotional engagement. Realtime monitoring features provide these professionals with live streaming, adjustable viewpoints, and interactive assistance tools, ensuring continuous support and adaptation. Furthermore, data is collected and stored for performance analysis, enabling datadriven decision-making for future sessions. Developed through a Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach in collaboration with a renowned rehabilitation center in Portugal, the framework ensures usability and relevance in clinical practice. Initial testing has demonstrated positive results, with healthcare professionals praising the personalization capabilities and providing valuable feedback for further improvements. By integrating adaptive, collaborative, and engaging VR experiences, this framework aims to enhance stroke rehabilitation outcomes, increase survivors motivation, and foster social interaction, making rehabilitation more effective and personalized.
Authors
- Bernardo Marques (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4454-710X)
- Sérgio Oliveira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3309-5897)
- Beatriz Sousa Santos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2219-2731)
- Paula Amorim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4908-5642)
- Inês Figueiredo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6492-7185)
Institutions
- Empresa de Desenvolvimento Mineiro (Portugal) (PT)
- University of Aveiro (PT)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-08-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/cog64752.2025.11114407
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.08
Funders
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia