VRealm- Hope at each sight

Project Title

VRealm- Hope at each sight

Project Area of Specialization Augmented and Virtual RealityProject Summary

Immersive and interactive technologies such as Virtual Reality are becoming increasingly  more prevalent in our everyday lives. Virtual reality for healthcare is fundamentally  different from other applications of virtual reality.  

Typical applications of VR and games technologies in health care include therapy, pain  relief, surgical procedures, patient education and more while lowering costs, decreasing  trauma, and improving outcomes. When healthcare market of VR is predicted to reach  2.54 billion U.S. dollars by 2020, the irony is that no such progress has been made in  Pakistan to utilize this tech so far. The aim of VRealm application is to fill this loophole  by developing an entirely locally made product which includes both research and  implementation from scratch in collaboration with healthcare professionals to improve  the quality of healthcare, the quality of life of the patient living with chronic  psychological conditions, and accessibility to health care through interactive and  educational VR eco-system. As many people are limited physically, they often do not  have the ability to perform the actions that are demonstrated in regular games (e.g.  running). Allowing them to play and engage in a VR environment where they are  seemingly able to perform those actions can be extremely gratifying. As many sick or  disabled people are depressed or suffer from other psychological disorders, helping  them engage in a different environment (especially one that temporarily takes away  their physical limitations) can significantly improve their psychological health. The player  will experience a truly exhilarating and mind-blowing adventure, immersion, freedom,  and the ultimate thrill with his or her friends, family, or colleagues as they communicate  and work together in a totally realistic virtual world. It will allow medical practitioners to  help their patients in a number of innovative ways in addition to helping health care  providers improve their skills. At the same time, VRealm games can teach specific  lessons about managing chronic illnesses and reinforce key messages about maintaining  one’s own health. This application has the potential to radically improve patient care.  Unlike videos or other 2D media that are, by definition, non-interactive, VRealm can  simulate and convey a sense of presence for a patient in a comfortable, "video-game like" setting. In fact, a user can enter an unrealized environment and feel as though they  are physically present within it.

Project Objectives

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J0TevYghEL5F-K1Hmzcoa7wK7Eki28tM/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16_euUXL9i9YTBYeOzv2Bqwc5IxELXGMf/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yiBa13ZOZwQmiAh8zdW5tf5EL9inrDs4/view?usp=sharing

Project Implementation Method

(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rC734L8d27lQKzM6P9CaLI4kPGM3nG_c/view?usp=sharing)

The product will be implemented as an innovative Virtual Reality System tweaked  with a full-fledged artificial intelligence based auto recommender system and  incorporate embodied and spatial cognition with the help of medical staff and  psychologists. It will consist of multiple systems including a Controlled Virtual  Reality Environment, where environment factors and certain events can be triggered and controlled by the assigned medical personnel and user conditions  and interactions can be recorded. 

For each of the use-case a virtual environment will be created keeping in view the  considerations and factors of that condition. The environment will be set up very  empirically in association with relevant medical personnel to make sure that the  events in the environment occur reasonably and the interactions that the  user/patient makes are recorded along with the medical conditions of the patient. For example, in case of Pain Management, the environment will be set up with  the collaboration of relevant medical person keeping in view the factors,  situations and environments that result in either reducing the pain or diverting  the patient’s attention. In case of Phobias, a psychologist’s guidance will be  adopted to set up the environment in such a way that all the factors that trigger  the phobia and all the ones that help in coping from it from it are synced accordingly. The amount of user’s immersion, interaction and his medical  conditions, and any changes to them due to the occurrence of a certain event in  the virtual environment will all be continuously monitored and recorded in that  specific user’s database 

The immersive interactive system will be implemented using the power of Unreal  Engine. When combined with Oculus GO it can create realistic, immersive and  interactive virtual reality environments. Oculus GO comes with built-in  accelerometer and gyro sensor which will make it possible to update the user’s  orientation in the 3D scene in real-time, while the touch controllers will enable  the system to capture real-time hand movement and interaction data from the  user, thus creating a totally interactive system. 

An artificial intelligence system will also be incorporated into the system. At each  appointment, user’s statistics, medical conditions and his responses to certain  events are recorded and fed to a Machine Learning algorithm. The algorithm  learns from the user’s statistics and changes the environment in future  appointments accordingly. 

Benefits of the Project

EMBODIED COGNITION :

VRealm offers “embodied cognition,” which means learning with your mind and  body, and numerous research studies have confirmed the importance of  activating the “muscle memory.” 

COST EFFECTIVE: 

Generally, in normal scenarios a patient requires (at least!) one therapist to work  1:1 with the patient, increasing the need for resources and therefore, the costs  for the healthcare system. On the contrary, through Realm, therapists are able to  monitor several patients exercising simultaneously at home, a big step forward  from the 1:1 paradigm of traditional methods and a big cut of costs

CONTINUOUS INDUCEMENT: 

When thinking about traditional rehabilitation, what does it come to mind? It’s  boring! It is repetitive by nature, and these repetitions reduce patients’  motivation over time. Realm ensures that the patient is comfortable in an  engaging environment by enhancing patient’s engagement and motivation with  3D virtual environments and video game-like tasks. 

RPM (REMOTE PATIENT MONITORING):

Traditional approach in medical care doesn’t provide objective data and the  ability to monitor the portion of therapy patients complete at home whereas  through Realm, therapists can thus monitor the patients’ progress via the web  and modify the therapy as needed without real-time interaction or training.

HEALTHCARE REVOLUTION: 

VRealm will revolutionize the way healthcare operates and the way people view  the somewhat minor yet life losing issues mainly associated with psychology of a  human. 

LOCALLY MADE PRODUCT: 

VRealm will be the first product of its type in the local market. If deemed successful, it will create an overall boost in the local welfare. It will also make an impact on the local economy and will also attract international firms working in similar prospects. 

NEXT BIG TREND: 

Believe it or not, virtual reality is the next big trend and many healthcare institutions are already using this technology in some capacity. In fact, recent statistics show that more than 240 hospitals in the United States are using virtual reality. For developing countries, it is necessary to keep up with the next/current big trends and VRealm is a step closer to that.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

 FULL-FLEDGED APP WITH AI SYSTEM, VR  SYSTEM AND DATABASE: 

The final product will be an app associated with an innovative Virtual Reality  System tweaked with a full-fledged artificial intelligence based auto  recommender system and database for recording and storing the looped progress  of the patient with the help of medical personnel. It will consist of multiple  scenario-based games or scenes for covering all the objectives i.e. pain  management & exposure therapy. The scenes in the app will be set up accordingly  for each use case including pain management, exposure therapy, skin burn  therapy, children psychology, treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social  cognition, overcoming phobias, treatment for Asperger’s syndrome, speech  differences, poor social skills, and the development of other harmful  psychological problems. The application will be made available on Android  platform as well as PC.  

? OBJECTS AND ANIMATIONS: 

The high end objects and animations will be delivered to bring patient’s thoughts  and words to life. 3D scenes will contain static objects grouped into a decor and  animated objects that change over time according to motion laws. Moreover,  scenes will be viewed using virtual cameras and they may be lit by synthetic light  sources. The scenes will contain entities of various nature:  

• geometric: 3D geometry, orientations, deformations  

• kinematics: velocities, accelerations, gestures  

• dynamics: forces, torques and physics 

• lights and colors  

• sounds  

• commands 

? MONITORING AND STATISTICS SYSTEM:

The monitoring system will record the current conditions of the Human, the  Environment and the responses that he/she gives to certain events which will  then be fed to an AI system to create insights for the medical personnel and also  suggest changes in the environments for future appointments 

? COLLABORATED MEDICAL PERSONNEL  INVOLVEMENT: 

A team of Medical Personnel working in the relevant areas that deals with mental  health, embodied and spatial cognition will be requested to collaborate on this  noble cause. Each case (Objective) will be thoroughly discussed with them and  the research will move forward based on their instructions regarding psychology  of human brain and manipulating it to overcome many problems. The team will  not only have involved before implementation but will also provide continuous  feedback related to patient recovery and progress. Based on the professional  feedback the application will be forwarded as a final product.

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry MedicalOther Industries IT , Health Core Technology Augmented & Virtual RealityOther Technologies Artificial Intelligence(AI), Wearables and ImplantablesSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for People, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Partnerships to achieve the GoalRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	80000
Oculus GO	Equipment	1	35000	35000
Touch Controllers	Equipment	1	35000	35000
Printing, Binding, Stationary, Poster	Miscellaneous	1	10000	10000