3DVR + haptics help rehabilitate stroke patients
Recovering stroke patients at the University of Southern California are getting rehabilitated virtual reality-style via the combination of 3D visualization and haptics. Software environments are designed to challenge patients with "cyber tasks" such as grasping, pinching, squeezing, throwing and pushing, depending on the impairment. Patients don various input devices such as the "cyber grasp" exoskeleton, which measures input and delivers force-feedback to the patient. Users can "feel" the sensation of the virtual objects they pick up and manipulate, and researchers can tweak the software accordingly to modify challenge levels over time as patients improve. Awesome — Nintendo, you listening?
