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Understanding Barriers in Physical Engagement: Prototyping an Exergame for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rehabilitation

Magre Colorado, Luz A. orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-3528-2688, Baberwal, Sonal S. orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-4809-1568, Gunawardhana, K.R. Sanjaya D. orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-3793-0688, Moran, Kieran orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-2015-8967 and Coyle, Shirley orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-0493-8963 (2025) Understanding Barriers in Physical Engagement: Prototyping an Exergame for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rehabilitation. In: 2025 IEEE International Workshop on Sport, Technology and Research (STAR).

Abstract
Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tears are severe and relatively common injuries with potential long-term consequences. Rehabilitation is a vital part of recovery, but patients frequently have trouble adhering to their Home Rehabilitation Programme (HEP) long-term. There are several reasons for this, (e.g. pain, boredom, having no expectations, etc). This paper aims to present a first step towards a Virtual Reality (VR) application that can improve adherence to the HEP. An analysis of themes is undertaken to identify why patients have difficulties in continuing their HEP, and based on this, a storyboard for a VR application is created with the forward lunges exercise as a case study. After the storyboard, a mid-fidelity prototype is designed and tested by one participant to obtain feedback and improve the prototype in a future second iteration. The participant’s responses show potential for improvements of the prototype in terms of presenting the game and the environment for a better experience. The use of Meta Horizon Worlds as a prototyping tool allows for faster iteration without the complications of developing a high-fidelity VR application. The importance of discussing barriers with patients, storyboarding and prototyping is highlighted and discussed, showing that they are important steps to create a VR application that will be used to improve a monotonous exercise.
Metadata
Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Event Type:Conference
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Design, Rehabilitation, Storyboard, Virtual Reality, Prototyping
Subjects:Engineering > Virtual reality
Medical Sciences > Exercise
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Engineering and Computing > School of Electronic Engineering
Research Institutes and Centres > d-real
Published in: 2Proceedings of the 2025 IEEE International Workshop on Sport, Technology and Research (STAR). .
Official URL:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&ar...
Funders:SFI Centre for Research Training in Digitally-Enhanced Reality (D-REAL)
ID Code:33441
Deposited On:14 Sep 2026 13:04 by Luz Alejandra Magre Colorado . Last Modified 14 Sep 2026 13:04
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