Hello all, Since participating in the launchpad event, I have begun working on a VR based project to support Aphasia therapy. Aphasia is a communication disorder often attributed to neurological damage, e.g. stroke survivors who loose capabilities in speech but are otherwise cognitively intact. I have conducted initial interviews with experts for initial problem definition and system design, and am currently defining the use cases, user experience, and functional requirements of the system for the three user groups - therapist, patients, and informal caregivers. We are creating a VR enabled tool that can bring all three groups together in creative, comfortable, and fun settings to carry out the therapy. The use of environments and artifacts can heavily influence the effectiveness of speech therapy since objects and environments are incredible communication tools. My thesis is that the ability to teleport to any virtual environment will dramatically increase the capabilities of the therapist to encourage active participation from clients. I hope to complete the system design within the next month and begin more indepth interviews with therapists and other Aphasia experts to finalize designs and begin system engineering and content creation. Please contact me if you are interested in finding out more, if you have a related story you would like to share, or if you would like to help! Until next time, Peggy
Update 7/8/2016 Since the June 25 post, we have begin defining user requirements based on a better understanding of our target population - high functioning individuals with Aphasia. For the narrative based program that we will use as an intervention to augment treatment, we have decided that hand tracking will be extremely important, and to a lesser extent, body language/posture recognition (i.e. hand tracking and positional tracking for mobile VR). However, cost of a full system (computer, HMD, body tracking and hand tracking) will be a barrier for most clients. So, we're looking into using a leap motion with a Gear in order to at least do the hand tracking. If anyone is aware of a good solution for either hand or positional tracking or both for mobile VR, I would appreciate your comments/advice!
Since the June 25 post, we have begin defining user requirements based on a better understanding of our target population - high functioning individuals with Aphasia. For the narrative based program that we will use as an intervention to augment treatment, we have decided that hand tracking will be extremely important, and to a lesser extent, body language/posture recognition (i.e. hand tracking and positional tracking for mobile VR). However, cost of a full system (computer, HMD, body tracking and hand tracking) will be a barrier for most clients. So, we're looking into using a leap motion with a Gear in order to at least do the hand tracking. If anyone is aware of a good solution for either hand or positional tracking or both for mobile VR, I would appreciate your comments/advice!
