The Road to Recovery: Re-energising people 65+ in care homes, deconditioned through Covid isolation, using the medium of virtual reality and social walks.

This project provides social VR (Virtual Reality) walks for people 65+ in Care Homes whose choices and opportunities are often limited. The winter months for people 65+ leads to deconditioning in muscle strength and feelings of poor wellbeing through decreased exercise and social contact. These effects have been exacerbated by COVID19 isolation and shielding, extending last winter through summer and winter 2020\. Care Home and Social Service carers are too few and the need too large.

There is no possibility of social VR walks with current VR hardware which is limited to room-scale and / or attended immersion. To allow safe, unlimited movement in VR, Wizdish has patented a VR treadmill (the ROVR) clinically assessed to use similar effort and muscle groups to walking. This treadmill teamed with a wireless VR headset comprises a 'ROVR System'.

Social VR walks will be created of real-places, familiar and unfamiliar such as museums, art galleries and local tourist destinations. Care Homes, in Cornwall and Oxfordshire will have ROVR Systems installed allowing local pairs within a residence to explore places together. During the project these Care Homes will be linked, enabling geographically distanced groups to explore and socialise together.

Social VR walks provide opportunity and choice for people with shared interests to meet, socialise and explore real-places captured as VR models, providing memories of shared experiences and feelings of connectedness. Care Home pilot groups will verify Wizdish ROVR VR treadmills paired with wireless VR headsets and social VR content is a complete self-motivated social and physical exercise solution.

The project will initially focus on people able to stand unaided or with a stick. The project seeks to overcome technology barriers and discover psychological drivers for self-motivated and self-actuated social VR walks.

This project will measure clinical changes in physical and mental health and self-reported wellbeing and connectedness. Independent clinical assessments and evaluation will be carried out by the University of Oxford and the EPIC Project at the University of Plymouth. The project provides pilot data to gain institutional funding support for Wizdish to offer ROVR Systems as a low cost monthly subscription model (akin mobile phones).