Virtual Reality Based Rehabilitation and Game Technology
Alessandro De Mauro
eHealth & Biomedical Applications
Vicomtech
Mikeletegi Pasealekua 57
San Sebastián 20009 Spain
+34 943 30 92 30
ademauro@vicomtech.org
ABSTRACT
Virtual Reality technology is currently part of advanced
physical rehabilitation therapy. However, several questions
remain unanswered: Can this technology improve or even
substitute the traditional methodologies? Can it really
influence the nervous system or does moving within a
virtual environment just motivate the individual to
perform? In this paper we present the state of the art, the
new advanced technology available and the most promising
applications in this field. Finally we will introduce our
research as a case study in the area.
Keywords
Rehabilitation, Therapy, Virtual Reality, Motor Disorders,
Game Technology
INTRODUCTION TO VIRTUAL REHABILITATION
Following an authoritative description of traditional
rehabilitation therapy of motor disorders [1] it is by its
nature repetitive, and repetition tends to “decouple” the
mind, and reduce patient’s motivation. In other words: it is
boring.
There are several universally accepted definitions of
Virtual reality (VR). One of the most clear was provided in
[2]: VR is an immersive, interactive, 3-dimensional
computer experience occurring in real time.
Virtual reality has the ability to simulate real-life tasks [3]
and comes together with several evident benefits for
rehabilitation:
1) specificity and adaptability to each patient and disease;
2) repeatability;
3) ability to provide patient engagement;
4) tele-rehabilitation and remote data access;
5) capability for precise assessment;
6) safety.
VR offers the possibility to be precisely adapted to the
patient’s therapy and to be specific. VR environments can
provide realistic training for the patient in different
scenarios and phases of the rehabilitation.
Repetition is crucial for the re-learning of motor functions
and for the training of the cortical activity. This task has to
be connected with the sensorial feedback on every single
exercise.
Patient motivation is fundamental because active
cooperation of the patient is needed to achieve a more
functional outcome of the therapy. Motivation can be
improved by assigning a serious game format to the
therapy. In this way the training activity becomes more
attractive and interesting [4, 5].
Remote data access is a fundamental requirement,
especially for rural patients, since they do not have to travel
to urban clinics.
In addition, VR represents a precise tool for the assessment
of the therapy during each session. The (tracked/saved)
data can be used by the rehabilitation specialists for
monitoring and managing the therapy [6].
By using VR in conjunction with Human Computer
Interfaces (HCI) the training of daily life activities can be
much improved in terms of time and quality. This approach
permits a realistic and ergonomic training in a safe,
interactive and immersive environment. In particular, VR
provides the user with the possibility to perform tasks with
a degree of safety which is normally not possible in the
traditional rehabilitation. VR provides the rehabilitators
with the possibility to influence qualitatively the training
program, even in real-time. Another evident benefit is the
patient’s engagment which is a key factor in rehabilitation
(especially for children).
Examples of interfaces able to interact with VR are mice,
joysticks, haptic interfaces with force feedback and motion
tracking systems.
Several researches have shown that, during VR
rehabilitation, the movements are very similar to those used
Copyright © 2011 for the individual papers by the papers'
authors. Copying permitted
only for private and academic
purposes. This volume
is published and copyrighted by
the editors of EICS4Med 2011.
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