Stroke is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Following a stroke, high doses of intensive motor rehabilitation provide maximal benefit. Barriers to realizing recommended levels of rehabilitation therapy include cost, physical access, and clinical resource availability. Virtual Reality (VR) offers a potential solution to overcome these challenges and enable home-based, self-directed therapy. Here we present a low-cost system utilizing the off-the-shelf Meta Quest 2 headset running custom software to deliver immersive rehabilitation exercises. The system employs movement amplification to partially reduce motor deficits and enable more engaging task completion. It leverages recent advances in VR technology, including hand tracking, voice recognition, and an AI-driven virtual coach, to create a more accessible environment for users with no prior VR experience. We tested the system in 60 able-bodied participants to assess feasibility for eventual clinical use. Participants completed three VR tasks with 30 participants receiving motor amplification. We measured motion sickness levels and attitudes towards the technology, while generating a set of normative motor performance data. Results showed no significant effect of amplification on motor performance, indicating that the small amplification factors applied in this healthy sample did not markedly impact task outcomes. User attitudes towards VR improved after the experience and minimal motion sickness was reported. This study suggests that low-cost VR systems may serve as a feasible option to increase post-stroke motor rehabilitation. Further study is needed to test the system in older adults and in stroke patients to determine feasibility in a more representative clinical setting.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study was funded by ResearchNS under the New Health Investigator Grant program.

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The Research Ethics Board of Acadia University (Wolfville, NS, Canada) gave ethical approval for this work (REB File # 22-07).

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Yes

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Yes

All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors and will be available online in the future.