A virtual reality setup with physical interaction with real-world objects

What is it about?

Vritual Reality (VR) headsets are a great tool for research and are getting into use in rehabilitation. In both fields, the lack of phisical senseaion from the virtual environment is preventing us from really feel inside that environment and adress the visual cues as real. We feel in a game or a movie. But, if we replace the standard VR controlers with the real object that you are holding in the VR so that you will hold the same object in the real world, than the VR becomes truly immerssive. Here we developed such setup for the game of pool table. The participants hold a hear cue stick and use it to hit a real cue ball on a real pool table, while all those objects are streams to the virtual environment. The outcome of the shot is visuble in the VR so that we can change it from the real-world in order to effect your learning. This can be used for motor learning research and rehabilitation.

Featured Image

Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash

Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This can make VR a truly useful tool in rehabilitation and improve technology based rehabilitation.