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An article written by members of the VAR Lab – Virtual and Augmented Reality Research Group, from the Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering of Aveiro (IEETA) and the Center for Rehabilitation Medicine of the Central Region – Rovisco Pais, won the Best Short Paper Award at the International Workshop on eXtended Reality for Rehabilitation (XREHAB). This workshop took place as part of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), held in South Korea from October 8 to 12.

This work proposes a transition between social virtual reality experiences (involving several people simultaneously) and augmented reality experiences, and vice versa, to support the cognitive and physical rehabilitation of stroke survivors. In particular, it uses a set of five serious games specifically designed to explore this concept, with different levels of complexity aimed at stimulating motivation, interest, and social skills among the various survivors participating in the rehabilitation sessions.

After initial laboratory tests with promising results, further testing will now be carried out at the rehabilitation center with stroke survivors and healthcare professionals to compare the use of different types of reality and assess their impact on the social component and on the rehabilitation process.

The award-winning paper, titled “Exploring Social Dynamics through Multi-User Virtual and Augmented Reality Serious Games for Stroke Rehabilitation”, was written by Sérgio Oliveira, Bernardo Marques, Paula Amorim, Inês Figueiredo, Bianca Guerreiro, David Palricas, Samuel Silva, Paulo Dias, and Beatriz Sousa Santos.