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VR Oculus Stroke Therapy - VR Rehabilitation

OriginalTheory
Honored Guest
Hello all, I just recently have completed my GoFundMe, for my step-dad who had a stroke and bought the Oculus, a decent laptop and the Touch controllers.

I have a few questions.

First let me give y'all an intro.....

My stepfather had a pretty gnarly stroke which left him without use of his entire left side.  He has limited eyesight, so if you had 10 out of 10 eyesight now, he is about 3 out of 10, with 7 of it being used by his right eye. His fingers swell often without use of them, and he can barely lift his legs....  

Stoke patients go through so much physical therapy, speech therapy, etc... to get things moving again.  They use this one method called a mirror-box, where he puts his left & right hand into a box that has mirrors in-cased in them and then he peeks into the right side and moves his fingers, in the process his left starts to trick itself into thinking that it is working....    So I'm sitting here, thinking screw old school methods, lets get him some VR.  Here we are now.

My step-dad was an avid athlete before this, he loved to skateboard, surf, and take care of his bees.  If there was a game, or some sort of VR environment that pertained to surfing, that would I think bring back a lot of happiness in him.  At the moment he is extremely frustrated that he can't drive a vehicle, or get around by himself, his balance is off etc.

Anyway, I'll be doing periodic updates on this, and giving y'all feedback. I'd like to speak to a developer or someone who could be interested in opening a different market into physical stroke rehabilitation as well. I don't have a background in Programming, but I did attend Gnomon in Hollywood, CA back in my day so I do have some knowledge in Maya, unfortunately it was Maya 1.0, and I'm certain it's improved since 1999/2000...lol 

I tried to get ahold of Facebook / Oculus awhile back to ask them about the quirks of the Oculus, but to no avail I couldn't find anything other than these forums. 


My Questions:

Okay so my first question is in Tilt Brush can I change the use of the right hand to the left?  So I'd rather have the palette on the right, so he can re-learn how to use his fingers, grip etc..

My second question is there any surfing, or skateboarding games or VR entertainment out yet, and if there isn't who would be willing to develop something like this?  

Third question is which developer / studio would take on something that has to do with stroke rehabilitation?  Basic room, with grid, and instructions on how to move his hands / fingers, and where including his arms.  Grip demos, and things that make him work the side of the client that in un-operable.



Rehabilitation Feedback:

So last week I finally hooked up the laptop, rift sensors, and plugged him in.  I set him up on Oculus's First Contact Intro.

My mother had told me that his normal stroke therapy isn't helping.  When we got him plugged in he was able to see his hand, and see his fingers move through the rift.  He hasn't had that much movement since being discharged from the hospital.

I occasionally hook him up 4 nights a week, we have about 14 games at the moment, most of them are perfect for his hand / finger movement.   He has improved over the course of this week, and has been able to grab certain items. 

If there is anyway to document or use video / twitch to record this, please let me know.  



Thank you, for taking the time to read this, I hope to hear back from a few of you.


I can be reached here, or through my email at: originaltheoryak907@gmail.com




4 REPLIES 4

OriginalTheory
Honored Guest
Update: May 10th:

My stepdad has increased mobility in his left hand immensely, he can grip certain things, but still has a hard time holding them.  He is able to walk normally now, but still needs help in his eyesight.

If you were to put a grid with x,y, axis the + in this case is his vision on his right side, upper and lower..... as you sx4brqkyvhg8.jpg

can see from the grid above his vision is still limited in this area, we can tell by the way he navigates the food on his plate, What is eaten and what is left over.... same thing goes for when we put a piece of paper in front of him and ask him to cross out all the lines ( I / _ ) to make an X, we particularly put them in the -3y, up to the -5x areas so he can learn to reuse his brain.  

It has been a hard process for him to learn and he of course gets aggravated all too often.

If anyone would like to maybe get some more feedback / ideas on ways to improve the Oculus experience, or use my step-dad as a subject for trials, that would be kinda cool.... granted I'm giving him up as a text subject. 

I'll keep giving updates.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi i am actually in a very similar situation. I am a care giver for a man that had a brain aneurysm about 6yrs ago his healing hasnt gone as hoped and he spends every day in the same room doing the same routine.  The problem im having is my technology knowledge is years behind and im trying to learn too many things at once.  
  So heres what im trying to do and if you have any advice id appreciate it.
  He cant speak and has no motor skills. I need to be able to see what hes seeing so i can navigate for him. I know there is a way to use a controller but so far im having a hard time connecting to any sort of separate screen. Have you made any good contacts that might care to help? 

I think doing some searches on the internet for universities which are doing medical studies using VR might be a good idea.  I know there are a couple in the UK.  The problem with medical issues is there are so many of them, each one different - to find people doing research in your area of interest is difficult.
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

OriginalTheory
Honored Guest
@ benlani.bl

No I haven't made any contacts yet, but I've been talking with a few of my programming friends and trying to come up with some ideas.  

I think if we get everyone on board in these forums together and hit up social media, and other areas of the medical field, our show of collaboration I think will in turn prove that there is a need for the Oculus and it's function in the medical arena.  

I read something about VR in the medical area having to do with brain functions.... about 3 months ago, a crew in the UK is and has been researching something for almost a year + now..... you might want to check into that?

I just typed into google VR Medical Rehabilitation, and switched around the tag names until something pulled up.  
If you'd like to start compiling some sources, I'll do the same, and maybe we can skype it out a bit later.

As for your situation being tech un-friendly, I'd recommend watching some youtube videos on how to get things to work, and if that doesn't help outsource a GameStop Manager to swing by and help you hook it up, in return for a bit of VR time.