Designing virtual environments for motor rehabilitation: Towards a framework for the integration of best-practice information

Virtual reality (VR) systems support motor rehabilitation of patients with different disorders. However, today it is not known exactly how the different features of a VR impact upon treatment goals. A framework is needed that makes it possible to further differentiate and analyze the components that together constitute a virtual environment. We suggest to distinguish three feedback types: movement visualization, performance feedback and context information. This framework can be used to inform the design of VR rehabilitation systems and to take into account best-practice experience.