VRun: running-in-place virtual reality exergame.

Exercise is important for health and well-being. However, for some people it can be hard to find the time or motivation to get the recommended amount every day. Exergames on modern gaming consoles have demonstrated potential to address this problem, by helping people stay motivated, which subsequently benefited their health. Fully-immersive virtual reality has the potential to achieve similar benefits. In this paper we present VRun, a virtual reality exergame developed for Google Cardboard. The game requires the user to physically run through a virtual world, with activity detected through the smartphone's accelerometer. We performed an evaluation of the game in three different formats, comparing virtual reality with a large wall display and a baseline laptop. This is the first evaluation of a running-in-place virtual reality exergame.