Virtual Reality For Physical And Motor Rehabilitation

While virtual reality (VR) has influenced fields as varied as gaming, archaeology and the visual arts, some of its most promising applications come from the health sector. Particularly encouraging are the many uses of VR in supporting the recovery of motor skills following accident or illness. Virtual Reality for Physical and Motor Rehabilitation reviews two decades of progress and anticipates advances to come. It offers current research on the capacity of VR to evaluate, address, and reduce motor skill limitations and the use of VR to support motor and sensorimotor function, from the most basic to the most sophisticated skill levels. Expert scientists and clinicians explain how the brain organizes motor behavior, relate therapeutic objectives to client goals and differentiate among VR platforms in engaging the production of movement and balance. On the practical side, contributors demonstrate that VR complements existing therapies across various conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases, traumatic brain injury and stroke. Included among the topics: Neuroplasticity and virtual reality. Vision and perception in virtual reality. Sensorimotor recalibration in virtual environments. Rehabilitative applications using VR for residual impairments following stroke. VR reveals mechanisms of balance and locomotor impairments. Applications of VR technologies for childhood disabilities. A resource of great immediate and future utility, Virtual Reality for Physical and Motor Rehabilitation distills a dynamic field to aid the work of neuropsychologists, rehabilitation specialists (including physical, speech, vocational and occupational therapists), and neurologists.

Writing a comprehensive scientific book about the cerebral palsy is a great challenge. Many different interventions are available for persons with CP. Increasingly, it is recognized that intervention needs to be evidence-based and family-centered. Related therapies can offer improvement in some cases but do not offer a cure. Lifelong re/habilitation (habilitation and rehabilitation) in person with cerebral palsy is the first part of this book which has four chapters about management in children and adults with cerebral palsy through the life span, providing support and services. Three chapters of the second part are exploring the new therapy options which could improve the family quality of life. Third part has two chapters about complementary therapies with new possibilities for the future.

This edited book focuses on the role and use of VR for healthcare professions in both health and rehabilitation settings. It is also offers future trends of other emerging technology within medicine and allied health professions. This text draws on expertise of leading medical practitioners and researchers who utilise such VR technologies in their practices to enhance patient/service user outcomes. Research and practical evidence is presented with a strong applied emphasis to further enhance the use VR technologies within the community, the hospital and in education environment(s). The book may also be used to influence policymakers on how healthcare delivery is offered.

The use of virtual reality for learning, training, and rehabilitation for people with special needs has been on the rise in recent years. Virtual reality allows the user to be trained, to gather information and to perform rehabilitation tasks in the virtual reality space. It allows the user to perform independently, safely, and efficiently, in a combined product of sensory, motor, and cognitive skills. The design, development, and evaluation of such virtual reality environments is a multidisciplinary work, the integration of medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, neuroscience, psychology, education, engineering, computer science, and art. In this book we cover a broad range of topics from virtual reality-augmented therapy in the development of cognitive neuroscience perspectives on motor rehabilitation, the potential of virtual environments to improve orientation and mobility skills for people who are blind, virtual reality for people with cerebral palsy, haptic virtual reality technologies for visual impairment and blindness, perception of space and subsequent design changes needed for accessibility, autism spectrum disorder to improving cognitive and intellectual skills via virtual environments in a range of different topics such as mathematical performance or prospective memory.

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of two conferences: The 8th EAI International Conference on ArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation (ArtsIT 2019), and the 4th EAI International Conference on Design, Learning, and Innovation (DLI 2019). Both conferences were hosed in Aalborg, Denmark, and took place November 6-8, 2019. The 61 revised full papers presented were carefully selected from 98 submissions. The papers represent a forum for the dissemination of cutting-edge research results in the area of arts, design and technology, including open related topics like interactivity and game creation.

In two freestanding volumes, the Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation provides comprehensive coverage of the science and practice of neurological rehabilitation. Revised throughout, bringing the book fully up to date, this volume, Neural Repair and Plasticity, covers the basic sciences relevant to recovery of function following injury to the nervous system, reviewing anatomical and physiological plasticity in the normal central nervous system, mechanisms of neuronal death, axonal regeneration, stem cell biology, and research strategies targeted at axon regeneration and neuron replacement. New chapters have been added covering pathophysiology and plasticity in cerebral palsy, stem cell therapies for brain disorders and neurotrophin repair of spinal cord damage, along with numerous others. Edited and written by leading international authorities, it is an essential resource for neuroscientists and provides a foundation for the work of clinical rehabilitation professionals.

Understanding Virtual Reality: Interface, Application, and Design, Second Edition, arrives at a time when the technologies behind virtual reality have advanced dramatically in their development and deployment, providing meaningful and productive virtual reality applications. The aim of this book is to help users take advantage of ways they can identify and prepare for the applications of VR in their field, whatever it may be. The included information counters both exaggerated claims for VR, citing dozens of real-world examples. By approaching VR as a communications medium, the authors have created a resource that will remain relevant even as the underlying technologies evolve. You get a history of VR, along with a good look at systems currently in use. However, the focus remains squarely on the application of VR and the many issues that arise in application design and implementation, including hardware requirements, system integration, interaction techniques and usability. Features substantive, illuminating coverage designed for technical or business readers and the classroom Examines VR's constituent technologies, drawn from visualization, representation, graphics, human-computer interaction and other fields Provides (via a companion website) additional case studies, tutorials, instructional materials and a link to an open-source VR programming system Includes updated perception material and new sections on game engines, optical tracking, VR visual interface software and a new glossary with pictures

Over the past twenty years, groups of therapists, researchers and engineers have seized the potential of virtual reality (VR) and its associated technologies to work together on designing and testing a great variety of rehabilitation devices and systems w