The inability to regain balance following a trip-induced event is one of the leading causes of falls and fall-related injuries in older adults. Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to expose individuals to realistic environments with minimal injury risk compared to real-world exposures. The purpose of this study was to compare lower extremity joint kinematics during overground walking when exposed to real and virtually generated trip obstacles. A total of 14 healthy participants [7 male, 7 female; age: 23.46 ± 3.31 years; height: 173.85 ± 8.46 cm; mass: 82.19 ± 11.41 kg; shoe size (men’s): 9.03 ± 2.71 s] were recruited for this study. Knee and ankle joint kinematics were recorded during obstacle negotiation when exposed to REAL and VR environments. Environmental exposure was assigned in a counterbalanced order to prevent an order effect. Knee and ankle joint kinematics were independently analyzed using a 2 × 3 repeated measures ANOVA to compare environmental conditions and gait type of the lead leg and trail leg at an alpha level of 0.05. No significant differences were observed between environmental conditions. However, significant differences were observed between gait types of the lead leg and trail leg. Current findings reveal similar gait kinematics during obstacle negotiation when exposed to real and virtually generated trip obstacles, suggesting the potential transfer of skill in fall prevention strategies to real-world conditions.

This study seeks to determine the efficacy of a novel, virtual reality (VR)-based sensorimotor assessment tool, VIST Neuro-ID, in comparison to the gold standard. This was achieved through computing common postural sway metrics, as well as comparing these metrics across population groups including sex and age (50–60 vs. 61–75). Sensorimotor assessments were conducted within the VIST Neuro-ID VR software while participants stood on a force plate. A proxy for center-of-pressure measurement was developed using the six-degree-of-freedom data collected from the head-mounted display used with the VR system. Moderate-to-high (r = 0.542–0.906) Pearson’s correlations were found between VIST Neuro-ID and the force plate for all eight postural sway metrics that were computed. Both systems detected significant differences (p < 0.05) across age groups for all metrics, except for two-dimensional path length from the force plate. Several significant differences were found across sexes, including AP and resultant sway velocity from the force plate, and resultant and AP root-mean-square from the HTC Vive Pro Eye. This indicates potential for VR to be used to collect vital postural sway metrics needed for assessing patient function, while also highlighting potential to identify balance patterns related to aging.