Researchers of Tel Aviv University's Department of Occupational Therapy in the School of Health Professionals are using a ‘virtual tabletop’ that ‘moves’ kids with disabilities and provides home-based treatments using virtual reality tools. Combining new 3D exercises with 2D graphical movement games already programmed into the tabletop, researchers reports not only success but also enthusiasm among young patients. The virtual tabletop application appealed to children as young as three and as old as 15. The movement-oriented games allowed them to ‘make music’ and reach targets in ways that are normally neither comfortable nor fun in the therapeutic setting.
Coupled with new technology involving 3D Movement Analysis, they hope to develop this virtual tabletop-type game into new and effective therapy treatment regimes. Researchers also plan to analyze brain function using trans-cranial magnetic brain stimulation. Currently, brain function relating to motor activities is analyzed with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). But many children are too impatient to sit in an MRI machine, so clinicians need a more accurate means of analyzing movement in children with disabilities to develop individualized therapy regimes.
More information:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100427171842.htm
More information:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100427171842.htm