Sport and Exercise VR Apps Are At A Crossroad
The promise of fully immersive VR is finally being fulfilled in apps involving sport and exercise. But do VR apps have to be immersive, or is it more important that they let us connect with others?
By David L. Neumann, Professor of Learning and Performance Psychology, School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University
Virtual reality (VR) was first applied to sport and exercise in the 1990s. Like most VR applications at the time, technological limitations hampered its widespread use. Recent advances have now removed many of these restrictions. There is now an explosion in the availability of sport and exercise VR apps. Matching this has been interest by consumers.
Cycling is a great example. Virtual cycling apps can benefit the professional and recreational cyclist alike and is well suited for use at home or gyms. Zwift, one of the more popular VR apps, boasts over 200,000 accounts across 155 countries. Although not all of these accounts are paid subscribers, the numbers are impressive. The number also grows when you add on regular users of other VR cycling apps like Tacx Trainer Software 4, Widerun, CycleOps, and Fulgaz.
Sounds good. Get a treadmill or ergometer. Load up your VR app. Work out effortlessly while your mind is taken away by the breathtaking scenery. Repeat. Before you know it, your fitness level has gone through the roof and you look trim, taut and terrific.
It isn’t quite that simple.
Part of the problem is that independent research hasn’t kept pace with the growth in the industry. In turn, evidence-based design and helpful features are not always being considered by developers as they rush to put out their product in this fledgling industry.
So, what do we know about VR apps when applied to sport and exercise?
VR applied to sport and exercise describes a situation when an athlete is engaged in a sport or exercise within a virtual world that induces a sense of mental and physical presence through feedback from and interaction with the virtual world.
The typical system consists of an exertion interface, the VR app, and the display. Fully immersive environments can be shown via a headset, although adequate immersion can be achieved through a flat screen or projected image. This is advantageous because it can be uncomfortable and even dangerous to use a headset with some exertion interfaces such as a treadmill. Ambient sounds and changes in the resistance of the exertion interface are among other features that can increase realism.
Importantly, contemporary definitions of VR applied to sport and exercise need not be limited to a computer-generated environment. A 360° video camera and even Google Maps allows the use of real video footage in a virtual sense.
What is apparent to those familiar with the industry is that VR apps are far more common and sophisticated for aerobic sports like cycling, rowing, running, and cross country skiing, than for skill-based sports like tennis, football, and archery. One possible exception is golf. Nevertheless, significant challenges remain in developing VR apps for many sports.
In a theoretical sense, VR apps and the exertion interface can be conceptualized as being part of a wider system. This VR system is determined by task factors, user factors, VR environment factors, and non-VR environment factors. For example, an Olympic rower (user) may complete a 2000 m row at a high race pace intensity (task) on a virtual river (VR environment) at a climate-controlled training facility (non-VR environment). Using a VR system leads to concurrent outcomes that are performance-related, physiological, and psychological. Post-task outcomes may also be observed in the short and long term (e.g., improved performance in competition).
Research supports this theoretical conceptualization of VR to sport and exercise. However, this research has also shown that there are significant gaps in our knowledge and some degree of uncertainty about the future.
The application of VR apps to sport and exercise may be at a crossroad. It seems that two directions are possible.
The first direction is seeing increasing realism due to significant gains in graphic processing power and programming sophistication and the blending of video footage with VR apps. With increased realism comes greater immersion and the perception of presence. Research shows that a more immersive virtual environment enhances performance and psychological outcomes. This, in many respects, is what developers have been striving towards since VR first began in the age of more rudimentary computer hardware.
The second direction does not even depend on realism. Rather, VR apps may simply be another platform to interact with others. Research in my laboratory and those of others is showing that social and competitive interactions can have significant effects on performance, motivation, and enjoyment.
The most obvious sporting interaction is that between competitors. Introducing a competitor can lead to increased effort and this is particularly the case for those who have competitive personality traits. But the situation need not be competitive. Just being informed that one will be exercising in the presence of a moderately more capable virtual other can lift performance. What is particularly intriguing is that this, and other types of social facilitation effects, may be independent of the realism afforded by the VR app.
The social facilitation effects replicate many that can be found when similar situations occur in the real world. What makes them particularly significant for VR app design is that VR technology expands the possibility for how interactions can occur. Unlike the real world, virtual interactions can occur across geographic boundaries, be asynchronous in time, and even involve your past self.
While all this sounds great, there can be a downside. For example, exercising with a partner who is significantly more capable has a demotivating effect and leads to poorer effort. More research is needed to understand the nature of virtual interactions and how virtual situations can be constructed to maximise benefits for people.
The future of VR apps for sport and exercise is exciting. While we are beginning to understand more about how people engage in virtual sport there are many questions that remain. It is important for app developers, sport equipment manufacturers, and researchers to work together for the benefit of the professional and amateur sport community.
For more information see:
Neumann, D. L., Moffitt, R. L., Thomas, P. R., Loveday, K., Watling, D. P., Lombard, C. L., Antonova, S., & Tremeer, M. A. (2017). A systematic review of the use of interactive virtual reality in sport. Virtual Reality. doi: 10.1007/s10055–017–0320–5
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