Virtual Therapy

Virtual reality, technology that gives users the feeling they are somewhere else, can be of great value in treating people suffering from a variety of physical or psychological conditions.

Therapy based on the technology is being used in a small number of U.S. clinics to treat burn victims and people with phobias, such as the fear of flying, spiders and heights. Researchers say the technology holds enormous promise for treating post-traumatic stress disorder and addictions and for use as a distraction technique in painful dental and medical procedures, including chemotherapy and physical therapy.

Advances in the technology, such as higher-resolution head-mounted displays, will most likely help virtual reality take its place among more mainstream treatments, say researchers.

Virtual reality generally involves a computer-generated, multidimensional sensory environment that users experience via interface tools that enable them to immerse themselves in the environment, navigate within it and interact with objects and characters inhabiting the environment.

In SnowWorld, the first virtual environment designed specifically for treating burn victims, patients undergoing painful treatments can fly through an icy canyon and shoot snowballs at snowmen, igloos, robots and penguins standing on narrow ice shelves or floating in a river.

The virtual reality treatment is successful because the patient's attention is no longer focused on the wound or the pain, but rather on the virtual world, says SnowWorld's developer, Hunter Hoffman.

While the medical applications of virtual reality are promising, more needs to be done before it will become a widely accepted and practiced clinical treatment.

“The innovators in medical VR will be called upon to refine technical efficiency and increase physical and psychological comfort and capability while keeping an eye to reducing costs for health care,” says research scientist Walter Greenleaf, president of Greenleaf Medical Group.

Greenleaf Medical is a Palo Alto, Calif.-based consortium of companies working to advance the development of new technologies in medicine.

Virtually Better President and CEO Ken Graap says he thinks companies will make wireless trackers——devices that measure movement and translate it into computer commands——and introduce better-resolution head-mounted displays with wider fields of view within the next five years.

Graap says that virtual reality technology will become wireless and patients won't have to be tethered to a computer ——allowing them to be treated at home. “I can envision people having a station at home and being connected through a telepresence to a therapist,” he says. “So in one window, there's a therapist who's encouraging the patient or helping control the desktop, and in the other window, there's the person who's receiving help.”

虛擬療法

虛擬現(xiàn)實是一種給予用戶身臨其境感覺的技術，在治療多種物理和心理疾病方面大有用武之地。

美國為數(shù)不多的醫(yī)療機構正在采用基于此技術的療法，治療燒傷病人和有恐怖癥的人，如害怕坐飛機、蜘蛛和恐高癥等。研究人員認為，此技術非常有希望治療燒傷后緊張造成的失調和沉溺癥，以及在牙痛時和醫(yī)療過程(包括化療和理療)中作為分散注意力的方法。

研究人員稱，該技術的進步，如頭戴式辨率顯示器，非常有可能幫助虛擬現(xiàn)實在主流的治療方法中占有一席之地。

虛擬現(xiàn)實通常涉及一個計算機生成的多維傳感環(huán)境，用戶通過接口工具進行體驗，使他們沉浸于此環(huán)境，并在其中漫游，與環(huán)境中的物體和人物打交道。

在SnowWorld，這個專門為治療燒傷病人設計的第一個虛擬環(huán)境中，那些治療時很痛苦的病人在接受治療時能在冰天雪地的峽谷中飛行，向雪人、圓頂建筑、機器人和站在窄窄的冰壩上或浮在河上的企鵝扔雪球。

SnowWorld的開發(fā)者Hunter Hoffman說，由于病人的注意力不再集中在傷口或疼痛上，而是在虛擬世界，所以虛擬現(xiàn)實療法是成功的。

盡管虛擬現(xiàn)實的醫(yī)學應用很有希望，但在它被廣為接受和在實踐中成為主流的治療方法之前還有很多事情要做。

Greenleaf醫(yī)療集團總裁、研究科學家WalterGreenleaf說:“這要求醫(yī)學虛擬現(xiàn)實的革新者改善技術的效率，提高物理和心理的舒適性和功能，同時還要關注醫(yī)療成本的降低?！?/P>

Greenleaf醫(yī)療集團位于美國加州Palo Alto市，是正在推進醫(yī)藥新技術發(fā)展的公司聯(lián)盟。

Virtually Better公司總裁兼CEO Ken Graap認為，在今后五年中，有些公司將制造出無線的跟蹤器(能測量運動并將它轉變成計算機命令的設備)，以及推出分辨力更高、視野更寬的頭戴式顯示器。

Graap認為，將來會出現(xiàn)無線的虛擬現(xiàn)實技術，病人不必被拴在計算機上，從而允許他們在家里接受治療。他說：“我設想將來人們在家里有一站，通過遠程方式接受醫(yī)生的治療。這樣，在一個窗口中有位醫(yī)生在鼓勵病人或者幫助控制臺式機，在另一個窗口中有個人正在接受幫助?！?/P>