The movie Ready Player One has shown us the possible future of VR (virtual reality) in the gaming industry. However, Tohoku University in Japan takes a different approach with this technology (Using VR Training, 2020). Researchers at the Smart-Aging Research Center (IDAC) developed a training protocol that allows a person to see a virtual body from a first-person perspective, creating an illusion of actually living and playing as the avatar in the virtual world. By having the avatar in the virtual world walk, run, and move around, the person wearing the headset would react accordingly, having their breathing and heart rate accelerate (Burin et al., 2020).
(Burin et al., 2020).
While you would not be physically moving, your brain believes that you are- it’s almost like exercising without actually moving. This type of technology would be extremely beneficial to those who are unable to do physical activities due to disease or motor dysfunction (Burin et al., 2020). However, as a relatively new development toward the medical benefits of VR technology, more research is required before this technology may be implemented into actual medical treatment. For now, we’ll just have to stick with exercising normally.
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