In recent years, clinical studies have begun to demonstrate the effectiveness of VR as an intervention tool for a variety of neurological conditions. There remain, however, a number of important issues that must be addressed in order to determine how widely VR-based intervention should be applied, and the user and platform characteristics that may be important when using VR in clinical settings. One of the unresolved issues that must be addressed is the suitability of particular VR platforms in relation to the therapeutic goals one wishes to achieve. Studying and identifying the characteristics of each platform may assist the therapist in choosing a suitable VR platform for the patient's needs. The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a study of healthy participants (N = 89) using 2 different VR platforms in combination with 1 of the 2 virtual environments that was designed to compare the sense of presence, incidence of side effects, perceived exertion, and performance. The data demonstrate significant differences in some of the key characteristics of both VR platforms and environments as they affect participants' sense of presence, performance, side effects, and exertion. We conclude that when seeking a suitable VR therapeutic application, the user's characteristics together with attributes of the VR platform must be taken into consideration since both appear to have an impact on key outcome measures.

The use of virtual-reality technology in the areas of rehabilitation and therapy continues to grow, with encouraging results being reported for applications that address human physical, cognitive, and psychological functioning. This article presents a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis for the field of VR rehabilitation and therapy. The SWOT analysis is a commonly employed framework in the business world for analyzing the factors that influence a company's competitive position in the marketplace with an eye to the future. However, the SWOT framework can also be usefully applied outside of the pure business domain. A quick check on the Internet will turn up SWOT analyses for urban-renewal projects, career planning, website design, youth sports programs, and evaluation of academic research centers, and it becomes obvious that it can be usefully applied to assess and guide any organized human endeavor designed to accomplish a mission. It is hoped that this structured examination of the factors relevant to the current and future status of VR rehabilitation will provide a good overview of the key issues and concerns that are relevant for understanding and advancing this vital application area.