Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 15
VR-Based Assessment and Rehabilitation
of Functional Mobility
Adam W. Kiefer, Christopher K. Rhea and William H. Warren
The advent of virtual reality (VR) as a tool for real-world training dates back to the
mid-twentieth century and the early years of driving and flight simulators. These sim-
ulation environments, while far below the quality of today's visual displays, proved
to be advantageous to the learner due to the safe training environments the simula-
tions provided. More recently, these training environments have proven beneficial in
the transfer of user-learned skills from the simulated environment to the real world
(e.g., [
5
,
31
,
48
,
51
,
57
]). Of course the VR technology of today has come a long
way. Contemporary displays boast high-resolution, wide-angle fields of view and
increased portability. This has led to the evolution of new VR research and training
applications in many different arenas, several of which are covered in other chapters
of this topic. This is true of clinical assessment and rehabilitation as well, as the
field has recognized the potential advantages of incorporating VR technologies into
patient training for almost 20years (e.g., [
7
,
10
,
18
,
45
,
78
]).
Many of the early desktop VR clinical interventions unfortunately suffered from
technological constraints that limited their value as training tools for clinical pop-
ulations. In particular, they often required patients to remain stationary (seated or
standing) and interact with displays on a computer monitor. Recently, however, new
technological advances that allow the user to navigate virtual environments by walk-
ing (either over ground or on a treadmill), combined with the steady improvement
of visual displays, serve to enhance the immersive nature of VR and introduce new
behavioral measurement opportunities. As a result, we are in the midst of a paradigm
shift in rehabilitation science; the field is beginning to move away from predomi-
nantly stationary interventions viewed on a computer monitor and toward dynamic,
(
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)
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W. H. Warren
Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences,
Brown University, Box 1821, Providence, RI 02912-1821, USA
e-mail: adam_kiefer@brown.edu
C. K. Rhea
Department of Kinesiology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
Greensboro, NC, USA
A. W. Kiefer
