Experience of Control in Loaded Lower Limb Exergaming Through Movement Augmentation in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) exergames have become a promising application for delivering health benefits. In exercises involving additional body loads, such as ankle weights, ensuring a positive user experience is essential for optimizing exercise outcomes. Movement augmentation is a useful technique for exercise-based VR applications to visually exaggerate users’ motions performed in the real world. However, the effect of movement augmentation on the user experience of control, weight perception, and performance has not been fully investigated. This study investigated user experience and performance under different levels of loaded movement augmentation in a lower limb VR exergame. Results from self-ratings and electroencephalography show that relatively low levels of movement augmentation help maintain the experience of control, while higher levels significantly reduce it. The findings highlight the importance of balancing movement augmentation and user control while designing VR exergames. This study provides novel insights and practical implications for developing future VR exergaming experiences.