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UCF's Media Convergence Lab will enter the second phase of research as it teams up with California-based Virtual Reality Medical Center to create a fun rehabilitation program to help patients recover from a stroke.
"Physical therapy is not only painful, which there is only so much we can do to relieve the physical pain, but it can also be boring and isolating," said Eileen Smith, an associate director of the Media Convergence Lab and a digital media professor. "If there is a way to add more socialization, to make it more fun, than there is at least something to get their mind off the pain."
In Phase I, the lab created an interactive mixed-media virtual reality prototype called Smash Me. With the use of head-mounted goggles and a small hand-held netted paddle, the patient would attempt to smash a cute virtual insect, resembling a bug-eyed cartoon mosquito, with the paddle. By attempting to crush the adorable little pest, the patient will be practicing physical therapy techniques to regain their range of motion.
While Phase I was to determine whether the lab could build a system that could capture data, like the position of a patient's hand, and output that data into something beneficial, Phase II is to test whether that system will help in the rehabilitation of a person who had a stroke.
"We expect it to have a lot of impact, because working with us from the very beginning will be a cognitive rehab person, along with an occupational and physical therapist," Smith said.
With Phase II to begin in the first quarter of 2009, the VRMC will come into the picture to help turn the prototype into a more practical program. The VRMC is primarily known for its use of virtual reality in treating anxiety disorders such as panic disorders and social phobias.
The company uses virtual reality exposure therapy by placing the patient in a controlled computer-generated virtual world to walk them through their phobias.
"Our goal has always been to branch out into all forms of medical training and treatment using simulation technology," VRMC's Orlando director of operations Angela Salva wrote in an e-mail interview. "Although our company was founded on treating patients with anxiety disorders using VR, we have been engaged in medical training and treatment for several years."
Smith said Phase II will only take a year before moving into Phase III, which is the commercialization portion in which the lab rolls out the final product onto the open market.
They hope to remove the head-mounted displays entirely in Phase II in order to introduce a screen projector that will display the insect.
They are unsure how exactly the prototype will change within Phase II, as they will bring in a new control group, Smith said.
"VRMC was UCF's commercialization partner in the development of the Smash Me game as a precursor to our prototype system: The Mixed Reality Rehabilitation System," Salva said. "Smash Me served as a proof of principle, and we are all excited about the future."
Whatever the outcome is, they hope that it will be beneficial to the rehabilitation community.
"Mainly what we've found is that the rehab folks know the tools that they have are lacking," Smith said. "They are looking for ways that they can put through the vetting processing to make sure they are as effective, if not more, that allow people to gather data and to bring the real world context into a controlled environment. Where I might have chaos, but it's chaos that I control."
This controlled chaos will be used to help rehabilitate patients and hopefully in the meantime, help them forget about the pain they are in. In order to do this, Smith uses three elements of human interaction to divert the patient's attention from pain. Those three elements are story, play and game.
The play environment is like an exploratory environment in which the patient can take his or her time to use the program and practice his or her range of movement.
The game environment will put a competitive edge on the therapy, where patients could challenge their grandson or significant other to a game of who can smash the most bugs in less than a minute. These two environments are linked together by a story that, by adding narrative, will hopefully immerse them into the atmosphere.
"We love narrative. Humans are hard-wired for it," Smith said. "Play is absolutely essential, because it's the environment before game. Once you reach the game environment, there are rules and there are winners and losers."
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