NeuroVR: Open Source VR toolkit for Behavioral Healthcare and Rehabilitation

NeuroVR: Open Source VR toolkit for Behavioral Healthcare and Rehabilitation

• 1.
  NeuroVR: An OpenSource Virtual Reality Tool for Research and Therapy Prof. G. Riva , Ph.D. Istituto Auxologico Italiano http://www.neurovr.org http://www.cybertherapy.info http://www.emergingcommunication.com http://www.e-psychology.net Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab .
• 2.
  Summary This presentationwill focus on: VR in Health Care : Research showed its potential in behavioral health and rehabilitation But its real impact is minimal. Why? PC based VR VR Hardware is now very cheap: about 3000 US$/2400 € But the software is a problem: expensive, and difficult to develop and customize The NeuroVR Project A virtual reality platform based on open-source software NeuroVR Editor to customize 12 pre-developed scenes NeuroVR Player for immersive 3D visualization Future perspectives 3d animation and support for PDAs Possible collaboration with us
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  Is VR apromise or a reality in behavioral health?
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  Reality: VR inHealth Care 1989: First VR company (VPL Research) founded 1991: Virtuality Game System 1993: Suggested the use of VR in psychological treatment 1993: Suggested the use of VR in surgical simulation 1995: First research papers on VR in neuro-psychological assessment and treatment 1997: First research paper on VR in eating disorders 2007: more than 1600 papers in MedLine and 1300 in PsycInfo
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  Promise: VR inbehavioral health Research papers show that VR has come of age for clinical and research applications : exposure therapy : the patient is gradually confronted with the virtual simulation of feared stimuli while allowing the anxiety to attenuate body image modification : VR modifies the bodily experience: it may be used in eating disorders neuropsychological testing and rehabilitation : VR allows to deliver interactive 3D stimuli in a variety of forms and sensory modalities; low availability of standardized protocols cognitive neuroscience : researchers carry out experiments in an ecologically valid situation, while still maintaining control over all variables
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  Reality: VR isa research toy VR has the potential for being a poweful tool for behavioral health But its real impact in behavioral health is still low: The penetration of VR in behavioral health care/research centers is minimal: around 0.5/1% The penetration of VR between behavioral health professionals is even lower: less than 0.001% WHY? Is VR too expensive/difficult to use?
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  For many yearsone of the main obstacles to the use of VR was the price of the equipment : a typical VR system in the early ’90s required a costly Silicon Graphic workstation in the range of 250000 US$. The significant advances in PC hardware are transforming PC-based VR into a reality . A simple immersive VR system now may cost less than 2000 €; a professional one 3000/30000 € VR Hardware: No more problems
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  Head Mounted Displaywith tracker Z800 3D Visor : 900 $ Intel Core 2 Duo PC with Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX graphic card: 1900 $ Wireless joystick and/or P5 Glove : 100 $ Immersive 3D Hardware: less than 3000 US$
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  There is a limited number of ready to use solutions for behavioral health (Virtually Better, PREVI) Their price is higher than the hardware one (5000-15000 US$) Limited customization possibilities Developing a new VE is expensive and time consuming Exchange of VEs is problematic (royalties, copyrights, runtimes) The real problem: software
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  Solving the softwareproblems: the NeuroVR project
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  Our solution: NeuroVRhttp://www.neurovr.org Virtual reality platform based on open-source software Allows non-expert users to easily modify a VE and play it in immersive or non-immersive way Free download (registration required) Video tutorials and clinical protocols available online
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  NeuroVR Editor Basedon Blender (www.blender.org), a 3D open-source tool available on all major operating systems Icon-based interface (no programming skills required) Includes 12 generic virtual environments depicting typical daily-life situations: apartment, restaurant, office, school, supermarket, swimming pool, etc . 2D, 3D objects, and videos can be easily added to the environment to personalize them: New objects can be added Objects can be scaled and rotated Timeline for objects and videos Editing performed in real time WYSIWYG Interface
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  NeuroVR Player Itallows to navigate and interact with the VEs developed using the NeuroVR Editor. It is based on the two major open-source projects in the VR field: Delta3D (http://www.delta3d.org) OpenSceneGraph (http://www.openscenegraph.org). It supports collision detection , realistic walk-style motion, advanced lighting techniques and video streaming with transparency .
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  Immersion and 3D Using the player is possible to visualize the VEs using a standard PC monitor or a head-mounted display The player can be configured for two basic visualization modalities : immersive and non-immersive . Immersive : the scene is visualized using an HMD with tracker (eMagin or Intertrax II) either in stereoscopy (3D) or in mono-mode; Non-immersive : the user can interact with the VE using either keyboard commands, a mouse or a joypad.
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  NeuroVR: A demo Video taken on a standard portable PC : Pentium 4 1.7 mhz processor 512 MB Ram Nvidia 128Mb graphic card See the video here: http://www.neurovr.org
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  Future developments Future releases of the NeuroVR Editor software may also include interactive 3D animations A VRML/X3D exporter and a player for PocketPC PDAs are planned Blender features API development for behavioral tracking tools (i.e. eye tracking) and psycho-physiological sensors (i.e. EEG signals) Creation of a community of users sharing VEs, objects and protocols
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  What you cando Add new objects : 2D, 3D and video Add new VR environments : developed using the free Blender toolkit - http://www.blender.org Define new protocols for the use of NeuroVR in behavioral health care: addition, smoking, anxiety disorders, stress management , ecc. Test NeuroVR in single cases or controlled trials : we have ready to use protocols for obesity and eating disorders Tell friends and colleagues about NeuroVR: send them at our website - http://www.neurovr.org
• 18.
  Prof. G. Riva, Ph.D. Istituto Auxologico Italiano http://www.neurovr.org http://www.cybertherapy.info http://www.emergingcommunication.com http://www.e-psychology.net Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab . Thank you for your attention