Move your virtual body: differences and similarities in brain activation patterns during hand movements in real world and virtual reality

Virtual Reality - Virtual reality (VR) is a promising tool for neurological rehabilitation, especially for motor rehabilitation. In the present study, we investigate whether brain activation...     

Immersive virtual reality for upper limb rehabilitation: comparing hand and controller interaction

Virtual Reality - Virtual reality shows great potential as an alternative to traditional therapies for motor rehabilitation given its ability to immerse the user in engaging scenarios that abstract...     

基于虚拟现实的步态训练康复机器人系统软件设计

提出了一种基于虚拟现实的步态训练康复机器人系统,该系统解决了传统下肢康复训练单一乏味的问题．虚拟游戏以脑-机接口为启动端口,以线程方式在系统中运行,以单例设计模式为主要模式,通过与系统控制主软件协同合作,对病人的步态速度、心跳等生理信息进行快速合理有效的存取操作,并将速度等信息恰当地体现在游戏中．引入虚拟游戏后,康复训练过程更有趣味性,这也在很大程度上提高了病人进行康复训练的积极性．     

Touch location and force sensing interactive system for upper limb motor rehabilitation

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The development of an interactive low-cost system for executing tailored upper limb rehabilitation exercises based on game-based Virtual Environments (VEs) is...     

Enhancing mirror therapy via scaling and shared control: a novel open-source virtual reality platform for stroke rehabilitation

Virtual Reality - Mirror therapy is increasingly used in stroke rehabilitation to improve functional movements of the affected limb. However, the extent of mirroring in conventional mirror therapy...     

虚拟超市认知康复训练系统开发关键技术研究

基于EON Studio开发一个适用于脑卒中恢复期患者的虚拟超市认知康复训练系统,用于训练患者的上肢运动功能。在3DMAX中建立虚拟超市场景模型和虚拟手模型;通过VC++6.0开发在EON SDK中使用的 Glove和Tracker节点,以实现数据手套、位置跟踪器与系统的集成;研究了虚拟手抓取虚拟商品时的碰撞检测技术;定义虚拟手的抓取规则。临床实验表明,该系统不仅训练了患者的手指跟手臂的运动功能,也训练了患者的认知能力。     

Active video game head movement inputs

Virtual reality has been extensively studied for applications in rehabilitation. With the development of active video games, these commercial products can also be considered for inclusion in a patient’s rehabilitation program. In this study, the Sony EyeToy ^® and PlayStation 2 ^® were used with the AntiGrav? game to evaluate the user’s head movement actions. The game required lateral head, body, and arm movements. Over the course of 9 sessions of game play, average and maximum head excursions remained constant. However, the frequency of head movement increased over the sessions. The results suggest that the video game could be used for postural balance rehabilitation through head movements, and their effect on the vestibular system. Future work will evaluate how such vestibular exercise, and an increase in head movement frequency over training sessions can support postural balance improvements.     

VRheab: a fully immersive motor rehabilitation system based on recurrent neural network

In this paper, a fully immersive serious game system that combines two Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) and a Head Mounted Display (HMD) to provide an interactive Virtual Environment (VE) for patient rehabilitation is proposed. Patients’ data are acquired in real-time by the NUIs, while by the HMD the VE is shown to them, thus allowing the interaction. A Long Short-Term Memory Recurrent Neural Network (LSTM-RNN), previously trained by healthy subjects (i.e., baseline), processes patients’ movements in real-time during the rehabilitation exercises to provide the degree of their performance. By comparing the functionalities of the proposed system with the ongoing state-of-the-art, it is worth noting that the reported fully immersive serious game system provides a concrete contribute to the current literature in terms of completeness and versatility. The results obtained by three rehabilitation exercises, chosen as reference case studies, performed on real patients affected by Parkinson’s disease have shown the effectiveness of the presented approach. Finally, the analysis of the feedbacks received by the therapists and patients who have used the system have highlighted remarkable results in terms of motivation, acceptance, and usability.     

虚拟现实技术在柔性上肢康复机器人中的应用

根据末端牵引式和外骨骼式上肢康复机器人的特性,研制了一种新型的柔性上肢康复机器人。机器人的康复训练系统结合了主动和被动模式的要素,将虚拟现实（VR）技术引入上肢康复机器人,通过现实环境中的光学3D位置捕获以及VR环境中的3D位置感知,设计了虚拟动态模型交互性节点和碰撞检测实验,实现虚拟现实交互,提高虚拟模型运动实时效果和上肢康复训练精度。VR和新颖的康复机器人的集成为具有特定任务的患者提供了有效的训练。     

A Web-based cost-effective training tool with possible application to brain injury rehabilitation

Virtual reality (VR) has provoked enormous interest in the medical community. In particular, VR offers therapists new approaches for improving rehabilitation effects. However, most of these VR assistant tools are not very portable, extensible or economical. Due to the vast amount of 3D data, they are not suitable for Internet transfer. Furthermore, in order to run these VR systems smoothly, special hardware devices are needed. As a result, existing VR assistant tools tend to be available in hospitals but not in patients' homes. To overcome these disadvantages, as a case study, this paper proposes a Web-based Virtual Ticket Machine, called WBVTM, using VRML [VRML Consortium, The Virtual Reality Modeling Language: International Standard ISO/IEC DIS 14772-1, 1997, available at ], Java and EAI (External Authoring Interface) [Silicon Graphics, Inc., The External Authoring Interface (EAI), available at ], to help people with acquired brain injury (ABI) to relearn basic living skills at home at a low cost. As these technologies are open standard and feature usability on the Internet, WBVTM achieves the goals of portability, easy accessibility and cost-effectiveness.     

The Perceptual Quality of the Oculus Rift for Immersive Virtual Reality

The recent release of the Oculus Rift, originally developed for entertainment applications, has reignited the interest of researchers and clinicians toward the use of head-mounted-displays in basic behavioral research and physical and psychological rehabilitation. However, careful evaluation of the Oculus Rift is necessary to determine whether it can be effectively used in these novel applications. In this article we address two issues concerning the perceptual quality of the Oculus Rift. (a) Is the Oculus able to generate an acceptable degree of immersivity? In particular, is it possible to elicit the sensation of presence via the virtual stimuli rendered by the device? (b) Does the Virtual Reality experienced through the Oculus Rift induce physical discomfort? To answer these questions, we employed four virtual scenarios in three separate experiments and evaluated performance with objective and subjective outcomes. In Experiment 1 we monitored observers’ heart rate and asked them to rate their Virtual Reality experience via a custom questionnaire. In Experiment 2 we monitored observers’ head movements in reaction to virtual obstacles and asked them to fill out the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (Kennedy et al., 1993) both before and after experiencing Virtual Reality. In Experiment 3 we compared the Oculus Rift against two other low-cost devices used in immersive Virtual Reality: the Google cardboard and a standard 3DTV monitor. Observers’ heart rate increased during exposure to Virtual Reality, and they subjectively reported the experience to be immersive and realistic. We found a strong relationship between observers’ fear of heights and vertigo experienced during one of the virtual scenarios involving heights, suggesting that observers felt a strong sensation of presence within the virtual worlds. Subjects reacted to virtual obstacles by moving to avoid them, suggesting that the obstacles were perceived as real threats. Observers did not experience simulator sickness when the exposure to Virtual Reality was short and did not induce excessive amounts of vection. Compared to the other devices the Oculus Rift elicited a greater degree of immersivity. Thus our investigation suggests that the Oculus Rift head-mounted-display is a potentially powerful tool for a wide array of basic research and clinical applications.     

Using immersive virtual reality to remotely examine performance differences between dominant and non-dominant hands

Virtual Reality - Circle drawing may be a useful task to study upper-limb function in patient populations. However, previous studies rely on expensive and bulky robotics to measure performance. For...     

Virtual reality software package for implementing motor learning and rehabilitation experiments

Virtual reality games for rehabilitation are attracting increasing growth. In particular, there is a demand for games that allow therapists to identify an individual’s difficulties and customize the control of variables, such as speed, size, distance, as well as visual and auditory feedback. This study presents and describes a virtual reality software package (Bridge Games) to promote rehabilitation of individuals living with disabilities and highlights preliminary researches of its use for implementing motor learning and rehabilitation. First, the study presents seven games in the software package that can be chosen by the rehabilitation team, considering the patient’s needs. All game characteristics are described including name, function presentation, objective and valuable measurements for rehabilitation. Second, preliminary results illustrate some applications of two games, considering 343 people with various disabilities and health status. Based on the results, in the Coincident Timing game, there was a main effect of movement sensor type (in this instance the most functional device was the keyboard when compared with Kinect and touch screen) on average time reached by sample analyzed, F(2, 225) = 4.42, p < 0.05. Similarly, in the Challenge! game, a main effect was found for movement sensor type. However, in this case, touch screen provided better performance than Kinect and Leap Motion, F(2, 709) = 5.90, p < 0.01. Thus, Bridge Games is a possible software game to quantify motor learning. Moreover, the findings suggest that motor skills might be practiced differently depending on the environmental interface in which the game may be used.     

Development of a system based on 3D vision,interactive virtual environments,ergonometric signals and a humanoid for stroke rehabilitation

This paper presents a stroke rehabilitation (SR) system for the upper limbs, developed as an interactive virtual environment (IVE) based on a commercial 3D vision system (a Microsoft Kinect), a humanoid robot (an Aldebaran's Nao), and devices producing ergonometric signals. In one environment, the rehabilitation routines, developed by specialists, are presented to the patient simultaneously by the humanoid and an avatar inside the IVE. The patient follows the rehabilitation task, while his avatar copies his gestures that are captured by the Kinect 3D vision system. The information of the patient movements, together with the signals obtained from the ergonometric measurement devices, is used also to supervise and to evaluate the rehabilitation progress. The IVE can also present an RGB image of the patient. In another environment, that uses the same base elements, four game routines – Touch the balls 1 and 2, Simon says, and Follow the point – are used for rehabilitation. These environments are designed to create a positive influence in the rehabilitation process, reduce costs, and engage the patient.     

A crowdsourcing method to develop virtual human conversational agents

Educators in medicine, psychology, and the military want to provide their students with interpersonal skills practice. Virtual humans offer structured learning of interview skills, can facilitate learning about unusual conditions, and are always available. However, the creation of virtual humans with the ability to understand and respond to natural language requires costly engineering by conversation knowledge engineers (generally computer scientists), and incurs logistical cost for acquiring domain knowledge from domain experts (educators). We address these problems using a novel crowdsourcing method entitled Human-centered Distributed Conversational Modeling. This method facilitates collaborative development of virtual humans by two groups of end-users: domain experts (educators) and domain novices (students). We implemented this method in a web-based authoring tool called Virtual People Factory. Using Virtual People Factory, medical and pharmacy educators are now creating natural language virtual patient interactions on their own. This article presents the theoretical background for Human-centered Distributed Conversational Modeling, the implementation of the Virtual People Factory authoring tool, and five case studies showing that Human-centered Distributed Conversational Modeling has addressed the logistical cost for acquiring knowledge.     

Virtual reality in vestibular assessment and rehabilitation

Previous experiences on vestibular compensation showed that multisensorial stimulations affect postural unbalance recovery. Virtual Environment (VE) exposure seems very useful in vestibular rehabilitation, since the experience gained during VE exposure is transferable to the real world. The rearrangement of the hierarchy of the postural cues was evaluated in 105 patients affected by visual, labyrinthic and somatosensory pathology in normal conditions and during sensorial deprivation. They were divided into five groups according to pathology and compared to 50 normal controls. Our data show that VE exposure is a reliable method to identify the deficient subsystem and the level of substitution. Moreover, Virtual Reality (VR) would accelerate the compensation of an acute loss of labyrinthine function, related to adaptive modifications of the vestibulo-ocular and vestibulo-spinal reflexes, overstimulating the residual labyrinthine function. The residual labyrinthine function is poor in chronic bilateral vestibular deficit and VE exposure should provide sensory substitution or sensory motor reorganisation, thereby modulating the external spatial reference and promoting the reorganisation of the multiple sensory input. The potential for VE exposure perspectives seems very promising when dealing with the vestibular system where there is a continuous rearrangement of different sensorial informations as a result of environmental and age-related changes.     

Theoretical approach for designing the rehabilitation robot controller

Robot rehabilitation is now recognized as an important method for the efficient recovery. In European Project FP7 BioMot, we have discussed the potential of the robot rehabilitation and proposed the suitable process for it. In this paper, we describe the proposed rehabilitation process and create the theoretical basis for the robot rehabilitation through designing the control system and the patient model. To design the patient model, we describe the source of paralysis and motion controller separately and define the recovery function from the paralysis. In the theoretical analysis of the control system, we show that the robot motions are first adapted to the patient abnormal motions and gradually drive the patient motions to the better ones by the motion support. The singular perturbation analysis proves that the stabilities of the two different process, adaptation to the patient motions and the motion support to the better ones, as a slow motion subsystem and a fast motion subsystem, respectively. The simulation results show that the proposed control system can drive the patients to the better state depending on the patient conditions such as recovery speed and recovery potential. The proposed system can be tuned to fit to the variety of the real patient conditions when we apply it to the real applications.     

From toys to brain: Virtual reality applications in neuroscience

While many virtual reality (VR) applications have emerged in the areas of entertainment, education, military training, physical rehabilitation, and medicine, only recently have some research projects begun to test the possibility of using virtual environments (VEs) for research in neuroscience, neurosurgery and for the study and rehabilitation of human cognitive and functional activities. Virtual reality technology could have a strong impact on neuroscience. The key characteristic of VEs is the high level of control of the interaction with the tool without the constraints usually found in computer systems. VEs are highly flexible and programmable. They enable the therapist to present a wide variety of controlled stimuli and to measure and monitor a wide variety of responses made by the user. However, at this stage, a number of obstacles exist which have impeded the development of active research. These obstacles include problems with acquiring funding for an almost untested new treatment modality, the lack of reference standards, the non-interoperability of the VR systems and, last but not least, the relative lack of familiarity with the technology on the part of researchers in these fields.     

基于VP的网络协同虚拟实验室的研究开发

该文简述了虚拟原型、虚拟实验室、计算机支持的协同操作。研究开发了一个基于虚拟原型支持协同工作的虚拟实验室系统———基于VP的电路协同虚拟实验室。该系统用Java语言实现,运行于Internet环境,采用先进的B/S结构。在系统开发中进行了三层软件结构的设计、应用服务器的设计、应用层协议设计、网络数据库开发、虚拟实验平台、虚拟元器件库设计。     

基于Internet的远程控制康复训练机械臂

针对上肢受伤和中风病人康复医疗的需要,将力反馈遥操作机器人技术应用于上肢受伤和中风病人的康复训练,研制了一种新颖的基于Internet的远程康复训练机械臂,使得医生可远程设定康复机械臂的训练模式和控制参数,从而控制机械臂,帮助在家中或社区医院的中风病人或上肢残障人员进行康复训练,医生利用反馈的视频图像及力反馈信息监控患者的训练状况.该系统可以大大提高医生的工作效率,方便广大中风病人和上肢残障人员.