Virtual Reality as a Complementary Therapy

By

Hind T. Alhashimi

Faten AlrashedSubervised By

Dr.Hatim Abualsamh

Outline

• Virtual Reality Technology in Brief• Application of Virtual Reality• Idea On Complementary Therapy• SnowWorld and SpiderWorld• Performance Criteria and Results• Challenges• Risks• Conclusion

What is VR

• Virtual Reality: A computer system used to create an artificial world in which the user has the impression of being in that world and with the ability to navigate through the world and manipulate objects in the world.“

What is VR

• "Virtual Reality allows you to explore a computer generated world by actually being in it"

What is VR

• Technology requirements– Hardware capable of rendering

real-time 3D graphics and high-quality stereo sound.

• Example: Head Mounted Display HMD

What is VR

• Technology requirements– Input devices to sense user interaction and

motion. – Output devices to replace user's sensory

input from the physical world with computer-generated input.

SpiderWorldSpiderWorld

Originally designed to treat phobic patients over come their fear of

spider.

Performance Criteria Performance Criteria and Resultsand Results

• ResultsResults– One of the best ways to alleviate pain is to

introduce a distraction. Because virtual reality immerses users in a three-dimensional computer-generated world, it is uniquely suited to distracting patients from their pain.

– Burn patients undergoing wound care report that their pain drops dramatically when they engage in virtual-reality programs Functional magnetic resonance imaging shows that virtual reality actually reduces the amount of pain-related activity in the brain.

Performance Criteria Performance Criteria and Resultsand Results

• ResultsResults– Virtual-reality programs can also

help phobic patients overcome their fear of spiders, heights, flying or public speaking. A specially designed program is now being used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in survivors of the September 11 attacks.

Performance Criteria Performance Criteria and Resultsand Results

Other Experiments• In 2000 Peretz B, Bimstein E evaluates the effects of imagery

suggestions during administration of local anesthetic in pediatric dental patients.

• In 2007 Susan M. Schneider and Linda E. Hood explore virtual reality (VR) as a distraction intervention to relieve pain in adults taking chemotherapy treatments for breast, colon, and lung cancer.

• In 2003 Susan M. Schneider et al explore the use of virtual reality as a distraction intervention to relieve pain in women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer.

• In 2004 Susan M. Schneider et al explored the effects of a virtual reality distraction intervention on chemotherapy related symptom distress levels in 16 women aged 50 and older.

• In 1998 Hiroshi Oyama described several VR researches for palliative medicine at the National Cancer Center Hospital Japan.

Possible RisksPossible Risks

• Motion sickness • People who suffer from

panic attacks, those with serious medical problems such as heart disease or epilepsy, are subjects for psychological risks.– Excluding those having

such a situation is a typical solution.

Future Work

• New VR hardware and software will be designed by The Human Interface Technology Lab (HITLab) – VR hardware predicted to further enhance

the effectiveness of VR.– a miniature projector

– VR software will be designed to be effective for a longer time, and is designed to be used day after day by the same patient.

Conclusion

• As a robust distraction technique,VR could be used effectively as a complementary therapy to alleviate patient’s pain.

• VR can ease pain, both physical and psychological.

• It can create therapeutic environments for the evaluating and treatment of medical conditions and to support exposure of anxiety disorders.

• The treatment makes the patient into a virtual environment that contains the feared situation rather than making the patient into the actual environment