Virtual Reality for the Elderly

Students from UCR studied whether elderly people, most of them with dementia, in daycare facilities  would enjoy and benefit from Virtual Reality (VR). The game they were testing was a so called balloon game, where participants, while being fully immersed, have to pop, or ignore, balloons of various colors. In March, students tested the first 10 people in Yerseke, in collaboration with ter Weel Tarazed en Square Fruit. The preliminary tests were meant to explore the practical possibilities and limitations of using VR in people with dementia. Most of the people did not experience any cyber sickness and enjoyed the game thoroughly. Apart from offering an entertaining and contemporary and personalized activity for elderly, the aim was to study if short term memory could be trained using this game.