Forum Discussion

HeatherKarr's avatar
HeatherKarr
Explorer
9 years ago

Oculus for hospice patients

I'm a massage therapist for hospice and have a 93-year-old patient that has been bedridden for many years. She doesn't have much longer and I was thinking that if she could experience surfing (something she misses doing the most) one more time that would be awesome. Does anyone know of Oculus being used for this purpose? I personally can't afford to set up my hospice organizations with this but maybe there is a donation body that could help me with this?

9 Replies

  • Jose's avatar
    Jose
    Heroic Explorer
    9 years ago
    Hi Heather

    Oculus Rift and other VR HMDs have been used to provide comfort to burn victims by showing them snowy and other cold visuals.

    As for surfing, I think the closest thing would be to use the Oculus Rift (or other HMD) to show 360 degree GoPro videos.

    Here is an example of one video:

    https://youtu.be/7gjR60TSn8Q?t=1m22s

    Jose
  • HeatherKarr's avatar
    HeatherKarr
    Explorer
    9 years ago
    So cool Jose! Where can I test something like this? And are the videos longer than that sample?
  • OpticKing's avatar
    OpticKing
    Expert Trustee
    9 years ago
    Your best option would probably be to get the gear vr. (it's better than rift/vive at viewing 360 videos anyway) plus it's portable so you can easily take it from patient to patient, unlike the rift/vive. All you need is a compatible cell phone and the gear vr. (rather than a ~1000$ desktop pc ((not including the price of the rift itself)) you'd have to carry around/setup at each place of use)
  • HeatherKarr's avatar
    HeatherKarr
    Explorer
    9 years ago
    Thanks, OpticKing! What would a set up like that cost? I assume I can use my iPhone for this. Also (this may sound like a dumb question) but would I be able to have different videos for different patients? I'm very unfamiliar with this. Thank you so much.
  • HeatherKarr's avatar
    HeatherKarr
    Explorer
    9 years ago
    Thank you so much. I'm sensing I need to actually try these out to see what would be best. Who has the biggest variety? BestBuys?
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    9 years ago
    This is such a nice idea :) 

    I'd recommend the Gear VR as well over any cheaper alternative at the moment, it is really miles ahead of any of the 'Google Cardboard' knock off you find around that claim to work with any phone! You definitely get more bang for you buck, plus you get access to loads more content on Oculus Home.

    You can get the Gear VR in Bestbuy and I think some even have Rift's to demo :) (not 100% sure though as I'm in the UK.)
  • HeatherKarr's avatar
    HeatherKarr
    Explorer
    9 years ago
    Thank you so much! This is really helping me go in the right direction!
  • Hiro_Protag0nist's avatar
    Hiro_Protag0nist
    MVP
    9 years ago
    @HeatherKarr please go for the Galaxy S7 phone.  The S6 series have overheating issues and the Edge versions don't have as clear a picture.  Find somewhere where you can try the NEW Gear VR with an S7 phone.

    Also, the experience you get by trying one in a shop, well, who knows what it will be - it depends on the salesman and if they have any clue about VR.