We have developed a user-friendly and engaging virtual reality (VR) program called “Let’s stand up and travel the world!” which is used for performing sitting-down and standing-up rehabilitation exercises. This program allows patients to actively engage in rehabilitation exercises every day with the feeling of traveling while viewing images of landscapes from around the world. Because the achievement levels in the exercise plans are connected to the completeness of the images presented, the program helps patients to actively engage in rehabilitation exercises for long periods without becoming bored (patented). The progress of the program is guided by text and voice on the VR screen and can be executed by gazing at icons or by hand movements (touching virtual icons), achieving a universal design.

The effectiveness of using the program as a home rehabilitation program for the elderly was evaluated by asking an experimental participant to perform sitting-down and standing-up exercises. As a result, the participant was able to perform rehabilitation, which involved 30 standing and sitting movements, every day for 7 days. In psychological evaluation using a two-dimensional mood scale–short term (TDMS-ST), the mean scores for the “Level of Vitality,” “Level of Stability,” and “Level of Pleasure” significantly increased after performing the program’s exercises. The results show that the participant felt lively, excited, calm, and relaxed after exercises using the VR program.

The technical evolution of digital graphic technologies have allowed the photorealistic virtual representation of the physical world. This allows people to experience an enhanced sense of presence in virtual environments such as virtual reality (VR). It is a common conception that vision is the primary sense in virtual environments, and evaluations are performed by assuming that the virtual body was a default entity that solves the issue of improving sense of presence. There is no evidence presenting a comparison between how the same environment/stimulant in the VR space is evaluated when there is a virtual body versus no virtual body. How can we bridge the gap between the real world and the unreal world if we don’t look into it? The present study aimed to gain an experimental understanding of how virtual embodiment affects the individuals’ perception of body control and interaction with the objects in VR environment with a focus on visual perception. The findings of the study suggest that the sense of body ownership is more powerful factor than the sense of agency in regards to virtual embodiment in VR environment.

To examine the softness and impression of visual objects in VR (Virtual Reality) space, the impression of the visual stimuli in VR space was measured using the subjective evaluation of a seven-point scale by changing with each the value of the deformation resistance of the stimuli, of shapes, and of colors. The value of the deformation resistance of the stimuli expresses the degree of deformation to return to the original of the object when touching it in VR space. The lower value indicates the larger deformation like pudding and the higher one is the smaller one like thick rubber they were used three types of values lower and higher, and no-deformation of the objects. The shapes of objects as the stimuli were three shapes (sphere, cube, pyramid). The colors of the stimuli were selected from five colors (red, green, green, gray, white) and they were used two types of feeling of materials (matt and metallic) in each color. Ten participants were asked to subjectively evaluate the softness and impression of the stimulus. In the results, the evaluation changes from soft to hard by increasing the values of deformation resistance in all the stimuli in VR space. It is suggested that the degree of the deformation to return to the original can express the softness of objects when touching them in VR space even though the user does not touch them physically. It is also discussed the relationship between softness and the impressions of the stimuli in VR space.