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

美國(guó)為數(shù)不多的醫(yī)療機(jī)構(gòu)正在采用基于此技術(shù)的療法，治療燒傷病人和有恐怖癥的人，如害怕坐飛機(jī)、蜘蛛和恐高癥等。研究人員認(rèn)為，此技術(shù)非常有希望治療燒傷后緊張?jiān)斐傻氖д{(diào)和沉溺癥，以及在牙痛時(shí)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(shù)的進(jìn)步，如頭戴式辨率顯示器，非常有可能幫助虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)在主流的治療方法中占有一席之地。

虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)通常涉及一個(gè)計(jì)算機(jī)生成的多維傳感環(huán)境，用戶通過接口工具進(jìn)行體驗(yàn)，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(gè)專門為治療燒傷病人設(shè)計(jì)的第一個(gè)虛擬環(huán)境中，那些治療時(shí)很痛苦的病人在接受治療時(shí)能在冰天雪地的峽谷中飛行，向雪人、圓頂建筑、機(jī)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(shí)療法是成功的。

盡管虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)的醫(yī)學(xué)應(yīng)用很有希望，但在它被廣為接受和在實(shí)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(tuán)總裁、研究科學(xué)家WalterGreenleaf說:“這要求醫(yī)學(xué)虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)的革新者改善技術(shù)的效率，提高物理和心理的舒適性和功能，同時(shí)還要關(guān)注醫(yī)療成本的降低。”

Greenleaf醫(yī)療集團(tuán)位于美國(guó)加州Palo Alto市，是正在推進(jìn)醫(yī)藥新技術(shù)發(fā)展的公司聯(lián)盟。

Virtually Better公司總裁兼CEO Ken Graap認(rèn)為，在今后五年中，有些公司將制造出無線的跟蹤器(能測(cè)量運(yùn)動(dòng)并將它轉(zhuǎn)變成計(jì)算機(jī)命令的設(shè)備)，以及推出分辨力更高、視野更寬的頭戴式顯示器。

Graap認(rèn)為，將來會(huì)出現(xiàn)無線的虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)技術(shù)，病人不必被拴在計(jì)算機(jī)上，從而允許他們?cè)诩依锝邮苤委?。他說：“我設(shè)想將來人們?cè)诩依镉幸徽?，通過遠(yuǎn)程方式接受醫(yī)生的治療。這樣，在一個(gè)窗口中有位醫(yī)生在鼓勵(lì)病人或者幫助控制臺(tái)式機(jī)，在另一個(gè)窗口中有個(gè)人正在接受幫助?！?/P>