mickeyd
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
It's very interesting that virtual technology can be used on severely burned patients to reduce their pain. It looks like another victory of mind over matter.
For Veterans With Burns, A Virtual Reality Aid : NPRThe version of the program in the military hospital uses high-tech goggles that have a wide field of vision. SnowWorld helps patients who wear the goggles block the unpleasant view of their wounds and charred skin, allowing them to navigate an icy canyon instead.
In it, users can push a button and throw a snowball at a giant penguin or a mammoth, which trumpets angrily in response.
Liberetto says SnowWorld made a big difference for him.
"I think the environment makes you feel like you're at peace," he says.
University of Washington researcher Hunter Hoffman, whose team came up with SnowWorld, says his work with combat burns, which tend to cover up to 80 percent of the body, has been promising.
"What was encouraging was the ones that needed it the most showed the most pain reduction," Hoffman says. "So the patients that were in the most pain showed the most pain reduction from SnowWorld."
The technology is already in use in a handful of civilian hospitals; it's a virtual reality helmet that the patient wears to experience the snowy distraction. But combat burn patients are often too injured to wear the helmet, so Hoffman's team redesigned the VR unit as a set of goggles that patients look through, and a joystick.