Virtual reality is already being used in many areas of healthcare, including diagnosis and treatment, such as surgery, rehabilitation and counselling. Virtual reality builds the illusion of a three-dimensional environment, and when those environments respond to the user's movements, the user feels immersed in the environment generated by the technology. Virtual reality therefore takes advantage of the potential of technological advances to shape virtual worlds in a variety of lifelike ways.

Virtual reality in rehabilitation

Virtual reality can help patients move and help them exercise in a way that physical therapy can't. This is mainly because, in a simulated environment, the patient is completely immersed in a reality carefully choreographed by the virtual environment. For this reason, their attention is not diverted to the sensation of physical pain as it is in physical therapy. As a result, patients will not be aware of physical pain in the virtual environment. The absence of physical pain enables patients to achieve their goals effectively. One of the most common effects of neurological dysfunction is that of lower limb motor function. It leads to restrictions, such as limited participation in activities of daily living. The rehabilitation of these motor abilities is a challenging and gradual process that can sometimes last for months. The traditional recovery process is repetitive in nature, which can negatively impact the patient's motivation to overcome challenges. This traditional approach does not provide any objective data to monitor patient progress in an effective manner. In these cases, virtual reality has become an important therapeutic tool, rather than a routine treatment in the rehabilitation field. VR in rehabilitation transforms the process into something more engaging and effective. It combines VR-based rehabilitation strategies to produce positive, effective and motivating experiences that lead to positive improvement.

Virtual reality (VR) technology therapy principle

VR system is a multi-dimensional virtual sensory environment partially or completely generated by computer, which generates various sensory information for participants. Three-dimensional display is an essential key equipment, it is the system to output feedback information to the user's main means. VR system can be composed of the following parts: high-performance computer system, feature sampling of computer images and graphic interaction technology. Virtual environment generator. Intelligent virtual environment (IVE) is an organic combination of VR, artificial intelligence and artificial life technology. Computer networks. 3 d visual image generation and stereo display system. Stereo generation and sound raising system. It is an important part of multidimensional information in virtual environment. Force feedback haptic system. One of the important factors for participants to feel the sense of immersion in virtual environment is that when users manipulate virtual objects with their hands or bodies, they can feel the forces and reactions between virtual objects, thus generating tactile and force perception. Human body posture, head, eyes, hand position tracking measurement system. As an important factor of information interaction between human and virtual environment, motion tracking is an important field of VR technology development in recent years. Man-machine interface interface and multidimensional communication mode, these technologies are mainly reflected in the headset display and data gloves these two kinds of interactive equipment. In the software support environment, the virtual world database needs to be established and developed. Under the support of the underlying support software and 3D modeling software, the development tool software of VR system should be established: the human-computer interaction graphical interface should be established under the support of input and output sensors and other hardware.

The benefits of VR in recovery

When virtual reality is incorporated into the rehabilitation process of patients with various diseases, it has significant advantages. These benefits include flexibility based on patient history, patient motivation and variability, transparency of data storage and accessibility of data through online media, reduced healthcare costs for healthcare systems, better utilization of resources, and more.

1. VR in stroke rehabilitation

VR has become an effective technological advance in the treatment of stroke rehabilitation. Because virtual reality can simulate real-life activities, it can help patients improve their self-care skills. Virtual environments are provided by devices worn by users or located in virtual environments. This immersive system layers the user's reality to create a sense of connection. Perform VR rehabilitation to control the symptoms and consequences of stroke. VR is best known for its ability to motivate users to keep practicing the actions they need. It also offers other advantages, such as independent exercises, stimulus control, the ability to provide user feedback, which can be easily recorded due to its flexibility. In addition, it allows patients to be in a safe environment, such as their own home, thereby increasing engagement.

VR in pain management

Pain management and relief is another area where VR has made such a difference that it could overturn patients' dependence on painkillers in the near future. VR becomes a coping mechanism for the brains of patients suffering from painful feelings and helps them overcome the pain. Therefore, VR facilitates a faster recovery process.

3. Virtual reality in cancer recovery

Virtual reality can also improve the function of cancer patients. The technique reduces pain and improves memory, vision and overall health in such patients. Cancer remains a major health problem in the world. Chemotherapy is recommended to increase the prospect of disease-free survival and to eradicate tumour masses. However, chemotherapy is accompanied by a variety of painful symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and depression, which increase the difficulty for patients to adhere to the prescribed schedule and affect their quality of life.

Therefore, distracting interventions such as VR rehabilitation can be effective and patients can focus on pleasant stimuli rather than unpleasant symptoms. VR creates a therapeutic environment for cancer recovery. Virtual reality, with its distracting interventions, makes chemotherapy more bearable and helps achieve realistic goals.

Virtual reality (VR) technology equipment

1. The treadmill programmer designed a large screen in front of the treadmill, and the projector simulated a hypothetical environment. Treadmills can be installed in spectacular natural wonders or famous cities, as well as in local neighborhood councils, and patients will feel as if they are walking outdoors. Its features include:

(1) Visual impact Large projection screens will immediately attract the attention of both the trainer and the patient during the exercise. For them, the screen becomes their world, and the environment in the recovery room is much safer than the outdoor environment created by professional films.

(2) Different paths Virtual treadmill contains many different forms of paths. Walk through famous cities, villages, forests and parks. Each complete path takes about 50 minutes to complete, but patients can choose different sections of the walk each time according to their interests, as paths can start at different points.

(3) Local roaming devices can also show local images, enabling people to walk around their familiar hometown. For example, patients can walk around a nursing home, walk downtown, or even walk in a local park or tourist attraction.

(4) Fitness treadmill can be adjusted according to the user's physical ability, set different walking speed and use time. For patients requiring psychiatric care, make them walk the same route every day so they become familiar with the route. The related equipment is simple to operate and easy to use. The treatment staff can focus on patient training.

2. Virtual therapy system for physical training

The device works by capturing the patient's attention with games that are visually appealing and often have an intuitive touch-screen interface. The game software can be installed on the device's small screen or on a removable screen, allowing the game to be moved from one training point to another. The software includes basic exercises, biofeedback exercises, objective results testing, patient tracking database and video analysis modules.

conclusion

VR is a comprehensive integration technology, involving computer graphics, human-computer interaction technology, sensing technology, artificial intelligence and other fields, it uses computer to generate realistic three-dimensional vision, hearing, smell and other feelings, so that people as participants through appropriate devices, naturally experience and interact with the virtual world. As the user moves, the computer can perform complex calculations instantly, sending back an accurate 3D image of the world to create a sense of presence. Generally speaking, virtual reality is a new way for people to operate and interact with complex data visually through computers. Compared with traditional man-machine interface and popular window operation, virtual reality has made a qualitative leap in technical thought. Virtual reality is widely used in medicine (virtual human body, virtual surgery and remote surgery, medical imaging, rehabilitation medicine, virtual laboratory).

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