VAOT-VIRTUALLY AIDED OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY: AN IMMERSIVE THERAPEUTIC ENVIRONMENT TO TREAT STROKE & ARM PARALYSIS

This paper presents a medical novelty in the field of occupational therapy . Patients diagnosed with stroke or partial paralysis of the arms can undergo therapy of the affected segment of the arm by incoporation of the arm movements in a much aesthetically sound , virtually simulated environment where the human models would be modelled using a 3D modelling platform with appropriate character rigging for associated movements and the posture estimation of the opacity points along the arms such as ball and socket joint , carpels , metacarpels etc would be achieved through infrared sensing of the patient's arm over an interaction space. This would in turn yield the motion parameters in a coordinate system along the X, Y and Z axes which would then be manipulated and scaled as per the customised needs of the patient's paralytic extent in the arm . So the virtual reality applications would specifically involve creative and interesting activities such as games that correspond to different regions of therapeutic activation along the arm . Due to an immersive and interactive simulation environment generated by the head mounted display , the patient would be engrossed in the application and even a minimal movement generated in the arm would correspond to a much sensitively calliberated pair of hands in the virtual environment .This would therefore enable the patient to undergo occupational therapy in a well abstracted manner that belies the actual level of movement and at the same time allows the patient to gradually respond to the therapy over a period of time while continuing this procedure as a part of the treatment . .